Bioresource Technology 93 (2004) 205–208

Performance and characteristics of an anaerobic baffled reactor

a,b,*
Jianlong Wang , Yongheng Huang b, Xuan Zhao a

a
Laboratory of Environmental Technology, Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China
b
State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China
Received 22 January 2003; received in revised form 18 April 2003; accepted 20 June 2003

Abstract
The performance and the characteristics of a laboratory scale anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) were investigated using synthetic
wastewater. The experimental results showed that among different volatile fatty acids (VFAs), acetate was the main intermediate of
acidogenic degradation of glucose. The VFA concentration decreased longitudinally down the reactor. The analysis of the biogas
composition revealed that methane concentration increased steadily from compartment 1 to 5, while hydrogen content decreased in
the first compartments. There was no detectable hydrogen in the last two compartments. The methane-producing activity of
anaerobic sludge in different compartments depended on the substrate, which suggests that the proper anaerobic consortium in each
separate compartment was developed according to the substrate(s) availability and the specific environmental conditions. The ABR
has the potential to provide a higher efficiency at higher loading rates and be applicable for extreme environmental conditions and
inhibitory compounds.
Ó 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Anaerobic baffled reactor; Biogas; Performance; Reactor development; Volatile fatty acids

1. Introduction scribed as a series of UASBs, which does not require

The successful application of anaerobic technology
to the treatment of industrial wastewater is critically
dependent on the development of high rate anaerobic
bioreactors. These reactors achieve a high reaction rate
per unit reactor volume (in terms of kg COD/m3 d) by
retaining the biomass in the reactor. High rate anaerobic
biological reactors may be classified into three broad
groups according to the mechanism used to achieve
biomass detention, that is, fixed film, suspended growth
and hybrid system.
The anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) was initially
developed by McCarty and coworkers at Stanford
University (McCarty, 1981). They noticed that most of
the biomass present within an anaerobic Rotating bio-
logical Contactor (RBC, Tait and Freidman, 1980) was
actually suspended, and when they removed the rotating
discs they developed the ABR. The ABR can be de-
*
Corresponding author. Address: Laboratory of Environmental
Technology, Institute of Nuclear Energy Technology, Tsinghua
University, Beijing 100084, PR China. Tel.: +86-10-62784843; fax:
+86-10-62771150.
E-mail address: wangjl@tsinghua.edu.cn (J. Wang).
granulation for its operation (Barber and Stuckey,
1999). A series of vertical baffles forces the wastewater
to flow under and over them as it passes from inlet to
outlet. Bacteria within the reactor gently rise and settle
due to flow characteristics and gas production in each
compartment, but move horizontally down the reactor
at a relatively slow rate giving rise to cell retention time
(CRT) of 100 days at 20 h hydraulic retention time
(HRT) (Grobicki and Stuckey, 1991). Therefore, the
wastewater can come into intimate contact with a large
amount of active biomass as it passes through the ABR
with short HRTs (6–20 h), while the effluent remains
relatively free of biological solids. This configuration has
been shown to result in a high degree of chemical oxygen
demand removal (Grobicki and Stuckey, 1991).
In earlier work on the ABR, Grobicki and Stuckey
(1991) investigated the effect of the variation of organic
and hydraulic loading rates on mass transfer and reac-
tion rate limitations. Grobicki and Stuckey (1992)
evaluated the hydrodynamic characteristics of the ABR
using tracer studies. It was found that the hydraulic
dead space of the empty reactor was around 8% by
volume, while with 8 g VS/l it increased to around 18%,
and the dead space did not seem to vary with HRT.

0960-8524/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2003.06.004
206 J. Wang et al. / Bioresource Technology 93 (2004) 205–208

Nachaiyasit and Stuckey (1997) studied the effect of
shock loads on the performance of an ABR.
The most significant advantage of the ABR is its
ability to separate acidogenesis and methanogenesis
longitudinally down the reactor, allowing the different
bacterial groups to develop under most favorable con-
ditions. This study mainly focused on the operational
characteristics of ABR.
2. Methods
2.1. Reactor configuration
The two laboratory scale ABRs were constructed
from 10 mm thick transparent perspex, with internal
dimensions of 518 mm long, 160 mm wide and a depth
of 300 mm.
The reactors were rectangular, containing five com-
partments of 68 mm, which were subdivided equally into
down-flow and up-flow sections by using a series of
vertical high/low baffles 6 mm thick. The baffles forced
the wastewater to flow over and under as it progressed
through the reactor. The baffles had a 60° turnout angle
and 5 mm separation from the base of the reactor. The
angled baffle has been found to be beneficial as it diverts
the main flow to the center of the up-flow compartment.
An inlet T section distribution system was included to
enhance the substrate/biomass contact and a weir outlet
zone to reduce washout and prevent blockages at the
outlet. The flow rate was adjusted by peristaltic pump.
The digester gas generated was evaluated by collecting
the gas using volume displacement in two graduated
bottles with acidified water to prevent the carbon diox-
ide dissolving. The gas volume was corrected to STP. In
order to obtain a sample at different depths and along
the length of the reactor four stainless steel sample ports
were placed in the top of the reactor in identical location
for each compartment. The reactors were maintained at
35 °C in a water bath.
Samples of bulk liquid from the reactors were also
analyzed for the levels of VFA. Acetic, propionic, and n-
butyric acids were measured using a gas chromato-
graphy with a flame ionization detector. The 2 m glass
column used for analysis contained 100/120 Chromo-
sorb packing, coated with 10% SP-1000/2% H3 PO4 . The
carrier gas was nitrogen at the flow rate of 50 ml/min;
the temperature of the detector and the injector was 210
and 180 °C, respectively; and the oven temperature was
240 °C. The sample size used was 500 ll. Good sepa-
ration was obtained for acetic, propionic, and n-butyric
acids.
The biomass concentration inside the reactors was
determined only twice in the case of each reactor: at
startup (inoculation) and at the end of the experimental
phase. The determination of the TS and total VS con-
centrations was done as described in APHA (1989). By
contrast, the biomass concentration in the effluent from
the reactors was monitored every time samples of
effluent were taken, by measuring the TSS. The biomass
present in a reactor at any given time could then be
calculated from the washout and the estimated cell yield.
Settling velocity tests were carried out in order to
characterize the settling behavior of the biomass. The
TSS in the effluent were measured daily by the standard
method, filtering a 100 ml sample through Whatman
filter paper with a pore size of 0.45 lm. The filtrate was
used for COD and VFA analysis.
The composition of the influent containing glucose,
trace metals and nutrients was as follows: glucose (as
COD) 2000–2500 mg/l, NaHCO3 alkalinity (as CaCO3 )
1500–2000 mg/l.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Variation of VFA concentrations
The profiles of VFAs in different compartments are
depicted in Fig. 1.

2.2. Analytical methods

The following analytical methods were used in the

experiments: determination of chemical oxygen demand;
measurement of the concentration of volatile fatty acids
(VFAs) in the bulk liquid; various measures of biomass
concentration (total solids (TS), volatile solids (VS) and
total suspended solids (TSS)); the rate of gas produc-
tion; and gas composition.
The method for chemical oxygen demand was the
standard dichromate reflux method, as set out by the
American Public Health Association (APHA, 1989).
The sample size used was 20 ml, diluted as necessary to
keep the measured COD value below 500 mg/l. Fig. 1. VFA profiles in different compartments.
 J. Wang et al. / Bioresource Technology 93 (2004) 205–208 207

It can be seen that acetate was the main intermediate 60

of acidogenic degradation of glucose in the ABR. In C1
compartment 1, the ratio of acetate to total VFAs was 50 C2
more than 60%. The concentration of acetate in com- C3

Methane poduction (ml)

partment 2 reached peak value, which was around 350 40 C4
mg/l, and then decreased in compartments 3 and 4. For C5
propionic and butyric acids, there existed a similar 30
variation tendency, that is the highest concentrations
occurred in compartment 2, and then decreased step by 20
step in the following compartments. The total VFA
concentrations decreased longitudally down the reactor 10
from compartment 2 on, and almost all the VFAs could
be removed by ABR. 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Time (min)
3.2. Biogas composition in different compartments Fig. 3. Methane production in different chambers.

The biogas compositions in different compartments

are shown in Fig. 2.
The methane content in biogas increased gradually
from compartment 1 to 5, which indicated that the
methane-producing capacity of the anaerobic sludge
increased. The hydrogen content was highest in com-
partment 1, decreased thereafter from compartment 2
to 3 which corresponded to the increase of the methane
production. There was almost no hydrogen in the biogas
produced in compartments 4 and 5. The carbon dioxide
content increased from compartment 1 to 5.
3.3. Methane production
The methane production rate of anaerobic sludge in
different compartments was measured using glucose as
substrate. The results are depicted in Fig. 3.
It was evident that the methane production rate in-
creased steadily from compartment 1 to 5. However,
there existed a lag time for compartments 3, 4 and 5,
which showed that the substrate had a great influence
on methane production. It suggested that the proper
anaerobic consortium in each separate compartment,
depending on the substrate(s) available and the specific
environmental conditions was developed. Therefore, it
may be not reasonable to characterize the methane
production rate of sludge existing in different compart-
ments using the same substrate. Fig. 4 showed the
methane production rate of anaerobic sludge in com-
partment 3 when different substrates, including acetate,
propionate, butyrate, the effluent from compartment 2
and glucose, were used.
It revealed that effluent from compartment 2 was the
most suitable substrate for the sludge of compartment 3
to produce methane.
An extremely promising and challenging, but also
essential further development for the future more ex-
tended application of anaerobic wastewater treatment
system would comprise the SMAP reactor system
(Lettinga et al., 1997). This system will be feasible for all
temperature conditions and for many very different
types of wastewater, including these containing quite
inhibitory compounds of a variety of heavily polluting
chemical industries. The results of this study proved that
the staged multi-phase anaerobic (SMPA) concept can
be realized in the ABR.
14
Ace.
12 Prop.
Buty.
Methane Production (ml)

Eff.2
10
Glu.

0
0 50 100 150 200
Time (min)

Fig. 2. Biogas profiles in different compartments. Fig. 4. Methane production in chamber 3 by different substrates.
208 J. Wang et al. / Bioresource Technology 93 (2004) 205–208
4. Conclusions
The performance characteristics of a laboratory scale
ABR were investigated using synthetic wastewater. The
analysis of VFAs in each compartments revealed that
the acetate was the main intermediate of acidogenic
degradation of glucose in ABR. The VFA concentration
decreased longitudally down the reactor from influent to
effluent. The measurement of biogas composition
showed that the methane concentration increased from
compartment 1 to 5, while the hydrogen concentration
decreased in the first compartments. There was no
detectable hydrogen in compartments 4 and 5. The
methane production rate increased steadily from com-
partment 1 to 5 and the substrate had a remarkable
influence on methane production.
The ABR performance corresponds to the SMPA
reactor system, which showed that ABR will provide a
high efficiency at high loading rates and be applicable
for extreme environmental conditions and inhibitory
compounds.
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