Study Of Acceleration Of Sludge Granulation Process In The UASB Reactor

Anaerobic wastewater treatment is a sort of low cost technology which integrates the disposal of wastewater with energy recycle. The technology fits the present situation of our country well. Anaerobic wastewater treatment technology will be with great prospects in the water pollution control area.One of the anaerobic treatment processes used in the world is the upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor. The reactor has succeeded in treating wastewater with various ingredient and strength. Granulation of inoculation sludge is the goal of UASB reactor's startup process and symbol of successful startup. In this study, two experiments are done. In one experiment some attapulgite clay is added into the UASB reactor during the startup process. While the other experiment is the control experiment without the addition of attapulgite clay. By the contrast, it was found that the addition of attapulgite clay in the UASB reactor could shorten the granulation process of the inoculation sludge. Thus, the startup process is accelerated. The improvement of UASB reactor's performance has also been observed.A new theory for the mechanism of sludge granulation, namely proton translocation-dehydration theory, was introduced in this paper. By some experiments, the mechanism of granulation acceleration in the UASB reactor with additional attapulgite clay is explained.