title: Sugarcane molasses-based bio-ethanol wastewater treatment by two-phase multi-staged up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) combination with up-flow UASB and down-flow hanging sponge.
abstract: This study was designed to evaluate a treatment system for high strength wastewater (vinasse) from a sugarcane molasses-based bio-ethanol plant in Thailand. A laboratory-scale two-phase treatment system composed of a sulfate reducing (SR) tank and multi-staged up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (MS-UASB) reactor was used as the pre-treatment unit. Conventional UASB and down-flow hanging sponge (DHS) reactors were used as the post-treatment unit. The treatment system was operated for 300 days under ambient temperature conditions (24.6-29.6 °C). The hydraulic retention time (HRT) in each unit was kept at 25 h for the two-phase system and 23 h for the UASB&DHS. The influent concentration was allowed to reach up to 15,000 mg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/L. COD removal efficiency (based on influent COD) of the two-phase MS-UASB and the UASB&DHS was 54.9 and 18.7%, respectively. Due to the effective removal of sulfide in the SR tank, the MS-UASB achieved a high methane conversion ratio of up to 97%. In DHS, nitrification occurred at the outside portion of the sponge media while denitrification occurred at the inside. Consequently, 27% of the total nitrogen (TN) was removed. An amount of 32% of residual nitrogen (28 mgN/L) was in the form of nitrate, a better nitrogen state for fertilizer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand E-mail: pairaya@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Choeisai
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand E-mail: pairaya@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jitkam
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand E-mail: pairaya@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Silapanoraset
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand E-mail: pairaya@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yubolsai
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi, Thung Khru, Bangkok 10140, Thailand.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yoochatchaval
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Systems Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2188, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.affiliation: Center for Regional Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Onodera
authors.affiliation: Center for Regional Environmental Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Syutsubo
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D019149:Bioreactors; D007220:Industrial Waste; D008965:Molasses; D031786:Saccharum; D013785:Thailand; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000295:instrumentation*; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D007220:Industrial Waste; D062065:Wastewater