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Volume 8, Issue 5 (Suppl)
J Bioremediat Biodegrad, an open access journal
ISSN: 2155-6199
Biofuels Congress 2017
September 05-06, 2017
Page 41
conference
series
.com
September 05-06, 2017 | London, UK
Biofuels and Bioenergy
6
th
World Congress on
Aurangzeb Akram, J Bioremediat Biodegrad 2017, 8:5(Suppl)
DOI: 10.4172/2155-6199-C1-007
Organic shock loads effects (with and without alkalinity) in submerged anaerobic membrane
bioreactors (SAMBRs): Changes in feed strengths at constant hydraulic retention time (HRT)
H
igh strength wastewaters including effluents from distillery, brewery, sugar and maize products industries require
treatment before discharge into aquatic environment. For carbon decontamination of food and beverage industries
effluents, membrane bioreactors are being developed to decouple the solid retention time from the hydraulic retention time
(HRT) and to produce solids free better quality effluents while the use of anaerobic biomass reduces the cost of excessive
sludge disposal and produces methane as a source of renewable energy. Three litres submerged anaerobic membrane bioreactor
(SAMBR) was used to study the effects of organic shock loads in the form of step change in feed strengths and alkalinity
to different magnitudes (two and five times) at constant HRT to obtain an insight into microbial responses and chemical
oxygen demand (COD) removal performance. The SAMBR was able to handle the high sludge loading rate (0.8 gCOD gVSS
-1
l
-1
) and the organic loading rate (9.6 gCOD l
-1
d
-1
) with 90% COD removal at high gas sparging rate (3m
-3
m-2 h
-1
) due to a
uniform shear force. Settled and attached growth biomass inside SAMBR at low gas sparging rate (1.2 m
-3
m
-2
h
-1
) survived an
organic shock load of 20 gCOD l
-1
(five times the steady state concentration) both in the presence and absence of moderate
sodium toxicity (4.5 gNa
+
l
-1
). Acetate and propionate were the two most significant volatile fatty acids (VFAs) appeared at high
substrate concentration, whereas butyrate appeared only at relatively low pH. Formate appeared for biomass acclimatised for
above neutral pH and disappeared at low pH for similar flocs morphology. Substrate degradation depends upon active biomass
and not on flow regime inside the bioreactor. However VFAs and soluble microbial products (SMPs) retention at low shear
conditions (1.2 m-3 m-2 h
-1
) confirm the concept of electrostatic “gel layer” formation. Based on the results of the specific
methanogenic activity using batch assays a larger amount of methane production potential is observed in SAMBR at higher
loading rate.
Biography
Aurangzeb Akram is performing academic research in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology Imperial College London United Kingdom,
Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark, NFC Institute of Engineering and Technology Pakistan and
the Institute of Chemical Engineering and Technology Faculty of Engineering and Technology University of the Punjab Pakistan and pursuing his career in academics,
research and government advisory services. He is performing reviews and publishing of research work for peer-reviewed international scientific journals and is a member
of different international scientific societies. His research interest is on the topics of energy and fuels, environmental sustainability and the relevant treatment processes
and performing research on novel membrane based bioengineering design for carbon decontamination of industrial and municipal effluents for discharge into fresh water
streams using anaerobic consortium producing biofuel..
aurangzeb.akram@nfciet.edu.pkAurangzeb Akram
Imperial College London, UK