Performance of upflow anaerobic filter in the treatment of distillery spentwash

Distillery spentwash, owing to its high COD, BOD along with obnoxious odour and dark colour presents several operational challenges when applying biological treatment technologies. Conventional treatment techniques achieve only about 70% COD removal, with the treated effluent still exceeding the limits prescribed by the Pollution Control Board. Hence, the need of the hour is an efficient technology to reduce the polluting capacity of the distillery wastes. Keeping this in mind, an investigation using a laboratory-scale upflow anaerobic filter (UAF) to study carbonaceous removal of distillery spentwash under mesophilic conditions has been attempted. The effect of hydraulic loadings on COD removal has been evaluated at different COD concentrations ranging from 2000 to 13000 mg/L. The COD removal percentage during the period of investigation was found to be in the range of 54.8% to 88.7%. The biogas yield was observed to be in the range of 0.33-0.45 m3/kg of COD destroyed.