Comparison of Fixed-Film Reactors with a Modified Sludge Blanket Reactor,

Abstract : An anaerobic sludge blanket process, termed the baffled reactor, has been developed which shows excellent promise for industrial wastewater treatment. It combines the advantages of the anaerobic filter (3), which has a high stability and reliability due to attachment of the biological solids onto and between the filter media, and the uplow anaerobic sludge process (5) in which the microbial mass itself functions as the support medium for organism attachment, leading to a high void volume. The baffled reactor's construction, however, avoids certain significant limitations of these other reactors. Specifically, the risk of clogging and the risk of sludge bed minimized. The baffled reactor maintains a high void volume without the need of expensive and operationally work intensive gas collection systems or sludge separation systems. The over and under liquid flow reduces bacterial washout considerably, and does not require unusual settling properties for the microbial culture.