title: Start-up of an UASB-septic tank for community on-site treatment of strong domestic sewage.
abstract: Two community on-site UASB-septic tanks were operated in parallel over a six months period under two different hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 2 days for R1 and 4 days for R2 at mean sewage temperature of 24 degrees C. The sewage was characterised by a high COD(tot) concentration of 1189 mg/L, with a large fraction of COD(sus), viz. 54%. The achieved removal efficiencies in R1 and R2 for COD(tot), COD(sus), BOD5 and TSS were "56%, 87%, 59% and 81%" and "58%, 90%, 60% and 82%" for both systems, respectively. R2 achieved a marginal but significant (p<0.05) better removal efficiencies of those parameters as compared to R1. The COD(col) and COD(dis) removals in R1 and R2 were respectively 31% and 20%, and 34% and 22%. The sludge accumulation was very low suggesting that the desludging frequency will be of several years. Accordingly, the reactor can be adequately designed at 2 days HRT.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Environmental and Water Studies (IEWS), Birzeit University, P.O. Box 14, Birzeit, The West Bank, Palestine.
authors.forename: Mohammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Shayah
authors.forename: Nidal
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mahmoud
mesh_terms: D019149:Bioreactors; D006801:Humans; D008877:Middle East; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D012722:Sewage / Q000737:chemistry*; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage