Electrical Conductivity for Monitoring the Expansion of the Support Material in an Anaerobic Biofilm Reactor

This article describes the use of the electrical conductivity for measuring bed expansion in a continuous anaerobic biofilm reactor in order to prevent the exit of support material from the reactor with the consequent loss of biomass. The substrate used for the tests is obtained from a two-stage anaerobic digestion (AD) process at the pilot scale that treats the liquid fraction of fruit and vegetable waste (FVW). Tests were performed with the raw substrate before anaerobic treatment (S1), the effluent from the hydrolysis reactor (S2), and the effluent from the methanogenic reactor (S3) to evaluate its effect on the electrical conductivity values and its interaction with colonized support material. The tests were carried out in a 32 L anaerobic inverse fluidized bed reactor (IFBR), which was inoculated with colonized support material and using two industrial electrodes at different column positions. The results with the previously digested samples (S2 and S3) were satisfactory to detect the presence of support material at the points where the electrodes were placed since the electrical conductivity values showed significant changes of up to 0.5 V, while with substrate S1 no significant voltage differences were appreciated. These results demonstrate that electrical conductivity can be used as an economic and simple mean for monitoring the support material expansion in order to avoid over expansion in the IFBR. It was also demonstrated that the conditions of the substrate in the methanogenic stage (pH and presence of volatile fatty acids) do not affect the operation of the electrical conductivity detection system.