Author : El Gohary E.H. and Aboulfotoh A. M.

In Egypt 16 up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) plants reactor were established during the last decade, One of the main problem faced these plants was the raw waste strength as the influent to the plants exceed it is design values. In this research submerged bio-reactors were used as a pre-treatment for the UASB unit in order to decrease the influent waste water strength, two different bio-reactor media types were placed in the influent channel of the existing UASB reactor, results shows that the two used media were able to decrease the influent TSS and COD as the pall rings media decreased the influent TSS with a range between 4.50 and 17.00 % while the COD decrease ranged between 4.90 and 24.7%, in the other hand the star shape media decreased the influent TSS with a range between 10.90 and 18.40 % while the COD decrease ranged between 8.50 and 29.40%. Both COD and TSS removal were 1st order reaction and the COD removal rate constants were equal to 2.40*10-3 and 1. 90*10-3, while the TSS removal rate constants were equal to 1.89*10-3 and 1.46*10-3 for the star shape and Pall rings media respectively.

Keywords: COD, submerged Biofilters, TSS, UASB.

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.7, No.5 (Sept/Oct 2017)