APPLICATION OF UASBR IN TREATMENT OF DAIRY WASTE

WATER

VIVEK R. KASAR(KOKIL)
1
,R.A.JOSHI2

1, PG Student, 2, Assistant Professor,
Dept. of Civil Engineering,Vishwakarma Institute of Information Technology,
Pune411048 (INDIA)
viv_kasar@rediffmail.com, rahul11802000@ yahoo.co.in

ABSTRACT
In developing, agricultural based countries like India, the industrial development moving faster,
along with this the water pollution, space limitation like problems also increasing. To resolve such
problem in Dairy wastewater treatment plant the Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor (UASBR)
should be used very efficiently.
A 38 liter pilot scale UASBR model developed with reflux to control flow of upper sludge to treat
the dairy waste water. It was operated for 6hrs- 8hrs after culture developed at different phases like
reactor without media and without recycle(batch reactor) at ambient temperature, with media and
without recycle (batch reactor), with media and with recycle (Continuous flow reactor), with media,
with recycle at mesophilic (35-39
0
C) Condition (Continuous flow reactor). After reaching stable
operation condition it was observed that the operation gives the significant removal efficiency of
different parameters like COD, BOD, TSS, TKN and other parameters. After comparative study
between different phases, It was found that the most desired result found in with media and with
recycle continuous flow reactor.
The COD removal efficiency was found in the range of 75-91%, BOD, TKN, TSS gives the
maximum removal efficiency. The model study after analysis of result gives the approximate idea
about the usability and its function.The anaerobic treatment results in formation of methane (CH
4
)
which can be used as an energy source. By vertical development of reactor the required space for the
treatment can be minimized.
KeywordsUASBR,Dairy waste water, Different phases for treatment, Comparative study for
different phases





1. INTRODUCTION
India is one of the fast developing countries with growing number of industries. The
situation is similar to that prevailing in most of the developing countries, which have not
been able to develop adequate civic infrastructure even when their number of citizens and
industries have increased rapidly. As a result many of cities have grown into overcrowded
and ill-equipped settlements with a highly polluted environment prone to frequent
epidemics and hardships. Dairy industry has become one of the major food processing
industries of the world in current century after the inversion of milk preservation techniques
and pasteurization and powderisation technique. In India more than 273 dairy industries
processing and supplying 19 million litres milk soled per day through arranged sales. But in
whole process large amount of waste water generates, thats why it is necessary to treat that
water by using sustainable method like UASB reactor (i.e. Upflow Anaerobic Sludge
Blanket reactor). The Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) process is one of the
recent developments in field of anaerobic treatment. In this process the use of primary
treatment and the filter bed is completely eliminated. The UASB process is seen as one of
the most cost effective & efficient anaerobic treatment. The anaerobic treatment results in
formation of methane (CH
4
) which can be used as an energy source. Therefore anaerobic
process followed by aerobic process has proved to be economical in waste treatment.
The UASB process was developed by Lettinga and co-workers in the late 1970s
(Lettingaet al 1980). Initially the reactor was designed to treat concentrated industrial
wastewater and its application was later extended to several type of wastewater treatment.
Wastewater emerging from industries posing a threat for the environment and human
health. Waste water is a water containing hazardous waste from various industries,
institutes and residential areas with high concentration of organic matter, heavy metals,
toxics and hazardous organic chemicals. Therefore it cannot be directly introduced to any
disposal site or water body and its collection and treatment are necessary to avoid any
possible future environment hazard.
In recent years, anaerobic treatment technology has been chosen as an attractive option
considering the dual benefits of environmental pollution control and meeting national need
of energy.
2. MATERIALSAND METHOD
The feed stock for the reactor was collected from Katraj dairy industry,
Katraj,Pune,Maharashtra, India. The material used and procedure followed for this research
is as follows-
2.1 Reactor Set Up-
A laboratory scale UASB reactor was fabricated from Acrylic pipe of 190 mm internal
diameter. The overall height of the reactor was 1200 mm, one inlet at 50 mm from the
bottom of the reactor was provided for the influent. The effluent outlet was provided at
525 mm below the top level of the reactor. One opening at the top of the reactor was
provided for collection of gas. Baffles are provided to guide gas bubbles and increasing
flow of influent from bottom into the separator to collect the gas generated and to allow
the settling of suspended solids. Three sampling ports are provided at a height of 667 mm
from the bottom of the reactor at 200 mm c/c. the effective volume of the reactor was 38
liters. The effluent tube was connected to the water seal to avoid the escape of gas
through the effluent. The gas out let was connected to a wet gas meter through rubber
tubing.
2.2 Packing Media
For this experimental work we used the plastic rings which is filled from the top
sampling port of which having specifications as PVC rings ID 1.1cm and OD 1.4cm in 250
Nos or small balls. This is provided for better solid capture in the system and to prevent the
loss of large amount of the UASB reactor solids due to process upsets or changes in the
UASB sludge blanket characteristics and density.PVC rings play the role as a supporting
media for microorganisms in the reactor. The feed was supplied from the bottom of the
reactor. A check valve of 1 inch size was fixed at the bottom of the reactor to facilitate the
sludge withdrawal. The lid of the reactor and other fittings were sealed to maintain
anaerobic conditions inside the reactor. The reactor was supported by mild steel framed
structure The schematic representation of this experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1.
2.3 Start-Up Process
The UASB reactor was acclimatized by feeding; cow dung slurry for 1 week. During
this period the reactor was operated in batch mode. After acclimatization period, the
reactor was operated in a continuous mode and dairy waste water was then gradually
introduced and run through the different phases.
2.4 Process Investigation
The operating parameters under which the performance of the reactor was monitored
are given in Table.1.The performance of the UASB was investigated for treatment of
dairy waste water through experiments at particular COD concentration with varying
Hydraulic retention time (HRT) in Hrs.the COD removal was evaluated. The organic
loading rate was 2.5g COD/m3/d. Dairy waste water collected to the dome shaped
structure. The up flow velocity was in the range of 0.6-0.9 m/hr.
2.5 Operating Methods-
The complete project work run through different phases-
1) Phase-I : Reactor without media and without recycle (batch reactor) at ambient
temperature
2) Phase-II :with media and without recycle (batch reactor)
3) Phase-III :with media and with recycle (Continuous flow reactor)
4) Phase-IV: With media and with recycle at mesophilic (35-39
0
C) Condition (Continuous
flow reactor).
All these phases run for same reactor for 6-8 hrs, the samples were collected from sample
port at interval of 1hr 30 min. and were analysed immediately after collection.
The performance parameters such as pH, solids, COD, BOD, TKN, SVI and Turbidity
were analysed as per procedure detailed in Standard Methods (1995).

Figure 1: Experimental setup

3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The characteristics of dairy waste water has been numerated in Table 1. During this
investigation the dairy waste was diluted to obtain the required COD concentrations. The
process performance was monitored and the COD removal efficiency of the reactor under
different hydraulic retention time. Experiments were conducted at room temperature(27-35
0
c)
Table 1.Characteristics ofthe Dairy Effluent before Treatment











Note-Above shown values are dairy effluent as an initial record values on each day before starting the phases.
3.1 pH-
The pH values of the influent and effluent samples were measured at different HRT and COD
concentrations. The pH Value of the influent was high compared to that of effluent. The
alkaline nature of the sample acts as an efficient buffer in the anaerobic biological treatment
process. The pH values decreasesand become neutral after treatment. The variation of pH in
combine influent and treated effluent is shown in Figure 2 .The pH of the treated effluent
throughout the studyvaried most of the time between 6.02-7.46. Sometimes it was high due to
higher pH of the industrial wastewater.

Figure 2.pH variation with respect to hrs for every phase
5.6
5.8
6
6.2
6.4
6.6
6.8
7
7.2
7.4
7.6
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
p
H

Hrs
pH vs Hrs
Ph@phase1
Ph@phase2
Ph@phase3
Ph@phase4
PARAMETERS Phase-I Phase-II Phase-III Phase-IV
pH 7.46 6.25 6.23 6.02
Total suspended
solids(mg/l) 0.84 0.78 1.48 0.64
Total Kjeldahl
nitrogen(mg/l) 5.6 4.2 13 4
COD(mg/l) 1360 860 13720 5520
BOD(mg/l) 1000 560 920 840
Turbidity(NTU) 39 116 45 224


3.2 Total Suspended Solids-

Figure 3. TSS variation with hrs.
In all phases the TSS shows removal efficiency good ,Phase 1and 2 shown removal
efficiency 85% and 89%.
3.3 Chemical Oxygen Demand-


Figure 4. COD variation with hrs.
The effect of influent COD concentration on COD removal was studied keeping HRT (hrs) as
a parameter. It was observed that COD removal percentage increased with increase in
hydraulic retention time. The present study also confirms this observation because the longer
the HRT, the greater the efficiency of CODremoval from dairy waste water. The maximum
COD removal efficiency was 91% in phase 3.
3.4 Total Kjeldahl nitrogen-
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
0 2 4 6 8
T
S
S
(
m
g
/
l
)

Hours
TSS(mg/l) Vs Hrs
Phase1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
0
1200
2400
3600
4800
6000
7200
8400
9600
10800
12000
13200
14400
15600
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
C
O
D
(
m
g
/
l
)

Hours
COD(mg/l) Vs Hrs
COD(mg/l)@1
COD(mg/l)@2
COD(mg/l)@3
COD(mg/l)@4
Total Kjeldahl nitrogen (mg/l) variation with respect to time (hrs) were showed removal
efficiency result 64% in phase 1 while it were observed very negligible in phase 4.

Figure 5. TKN variation with hrs.
3.5 Biochemical Oxygen Demand-

Figure 6.BOD(mg/l) variation with hrs.

The BOD removal efficiency of the reactor is illustrated in Figure 6. Initially in Phase 1
reactor was showing 52% removal efficiency of BOD afterward in phase 2 it decreases upto
51% then increases in Phase 3 with showing comparatively higher as 61% .In phase 4, it was
observed upto 42% because of high temperature, as temp. Increases DO decreases, effectively
BOD increases.
4. CONCLUSION
In the present study, a pilot lab scale model was set-up in the laboratory. This reactor
was set for 1 month. Following were the major investigations of this study:
1. The upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor seems to be quite effective for treating Dairy
industrial wastewater with respect to COD (91%) and BOD(61%) removal.
2. It is studied that operating temperature, pH of waste water, microbial population, and
presence of ammonia based materials affected the performance of the reactor.
0
5
10
15
20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
T
K
N
(
m
g
/
l
)

Hours
TKN(mg/l) Vs Hrs
TKN(mg/l)@1
TKN(mg/l)@2
TKN(mg/l)@3
TKN(mg/l)@3
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
B
O
D
(
m
g
/
l
)

Hours
BOD(mg/l) Vs Hrs
BOD(mg/l)@1
BOD(mg/l)@2
BOD(mg/l)@3
BOD(mg/l)@4
3. After the treatment Dairy waste water can be used for agriculture purpose and the formed
methane (CH
4
) which can be used as an energy source.
4. The UASB process is seen as one of the most cost effective & efficient anaerobic treatment
procedure needs minimum space for treatment.
The present study showed a positive approach for the Dairy wastewater treatment. We
conclude that by maintaining some important parameters like temperature control, HRT, OLR
the reactor can give the desired result.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This research was supported by the Dept. of Civil Engineering, Vishwakarma Institute of
Information Technology, Pune-48 and Katraj Dairy, Pune (INDIA).
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