Effects of pH, acidity and alkalinity on the microbiota activity of an anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB) treating pigmanure effluents

Abstract

The anaerobic processes used for treating wastewater have been often applied mainly for optimizing treatment systems. Among many of these systems, the UASB is one of the most successfully used. This type of reactor presents a good condition for microorganisms development, and therefore, for organic matter degradation. As a result, the goal of this research was to evaluate the effect of parameters, such as: temperature, pH, acidity and alkalinity on the microorganisms consortia, acclimatized in an UASB reactor, and simultaneously, observing the sludge morphology through a scanning electronic microscopy (SEM), in order to identify the response of the bacteria consortia under this environmental circumstances. The biomass operated under a mesophilic temperature, varying from 190C to 210C. The maximum concentration of volatile acids was 100 mg L-1, and the volumetric organic loading rate was 59 kgCOD m-3d-1. The total alkalinity concentration values were between 2500 and 5550 mgCaCO3 L-1. The average pH value of the sludge was 7.3. Under these conditions it was observed the development of a well acclimatized granular biomass, composed mainly of filamentous bacteria.