Pretreatment of swine wastewater using anaerobic filter

Efforts were made to assess the efficiency of an anaerobic filter packed with porous floating ceramic media and to identify the optimum operational condition of anaerobic filter as a pretreatment of swine wastewater for the subsequent biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus. A stepwise decrease in hydraulic retention time (HRT) and an increase in organic loading rate (OLR) were utilized in an anaerobic filter reactor at mesophilic temperature (35°C). The optimum operating condition of the anaerobic filter was found to be at an HRT of 1 d. A soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of 62% and a total suspended solids removal efficiency of 39% at an HRT of 1 d were achieved with an OLR of 16.0 kg total COD/(m³·d), respectively. The maximum methane production rate approached 1.70 vol of biogas produced per volume of reactor per day at an HRT of 1 d. It was likely that the effluent COD/total Kjeldahl nitrogen ratio, of 22, the COD/total phosphorous ratio of 47, and the high effluent alkalinity >2500 mg/L as CaCO₃ of the anaerobic filter operated at an HRT of 1 d was adequate for the subsequent biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus.