The use of upflow anaerobic filter and AnSBR for wastewater treatment at ambient temperature

This research was carried out in order to study the effect of the temperature and hydraulic retention time (HRT) on the start-up and steady-state performance of upflow anaerobic filter (UAF) and anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (AnSBR). A mixture of synthetic substrate (glucose and sodium acetate) and real municipal wastewater was used as a laboratory substrate. The temperature (in the range 9–23°C) and HRT (in the range 6–46 h) were selected as the most decisive technological parameters for a practical application. Average removal efficiency of COD found for tested anaerobic reactors were 56–88% (AnSBR) and 46–92% (UAF) depending on used temperature and HRTs. Based on the observed results, the use of AnSBR and UAF in practice seems to be a potential technology for (pre)-treatment of wastewater produced by small communities.