| A two-stage anaerobic-aerobic process was used to achieve an extremely efficient treatment of potato and sugar wastewaters in this study. Two years of continuous laboratory research was conducted (both on continuous and batch reactors). Synthetic potato wastewater amended with synthetic sugar wastewater was used as feed for this study. Bio-augmentation application was also used. A short hydraulic detention time, 6 hours, was used in the anaerobic pretreatment process. The parameter examined in the anaerobic process was bio-augmentation; in the aerobic process the parameters were hydraulic detention time, sludge age, and bio-augmentation.;Results indicate a high percentage of organics removal (up to 90%) can be achieved using the two-stage anaerobic-aerobic process. In the anaerobic process, results indicate that bio-augmentation slightly improved better organics removal. In the aerobic activated sludge process, results indicate that bio-augmentation improved that organic removal rate, and reduced the silids production. Results also indicate that only a small fraction of MLVSS is bacteria, and that bacterial population is proportional to organics removal. |
