Anaerobic treatment of chemical and brewery waste water with a new type of anaerobic reactor; the biobed® EGSB reactor
In this paper a new ultra high loaded type of anaerobic reactor, the Biobed® EGSB (Expanded Granular Sludge Bed) reactor, is presented. Also presented is the full scale implementation of this reactor in two different types of industry; namely chemical industry and brewery. The chemical factory involved is Caldic Europoort in the Netherlands. In this factory formaldehyde is produced from methanol. The waste water is characterised by high concentrations of these compounds (formaldehyde till 5 g/l and methanol till 10 g/l). Due to the special configuration of the employed anaerobic reactor it is possible to acquire a removal efficiency for both compounds of more than 99%. At the brewery involved the Biobed® reactor is installed before an existing aerobic treatment. Here, the reactor serves as “COD remover”, which results in a decreased COD load to the aerobic post-treatment causing lesser sludge production and lesser energy consumption. It is concluded that the Biobed® EGSB reactor is a new ultra high loaded anaerobic treatment system in which it is possible to obtain high volumetric COD removal rates and in which it is possible to treat waste water containing toxic but degradable chemical compounds.