Viabilidade de pós-tratamento aeróbio de efluentes de reatores UASB visando reúso na agricultura.

Abstract

Modern anaerobic systems for domestic sewage treatment, although very effective in removing organic matter and solid suspended, do not produce an effluent quality compatible with the legal standards for discharge into water bodies’ receivers. Therefore, such systems have to be associated with post treatment units. This paper deals with an experimental investigation into the feasibility of applying the activated sludge system as an alternative post-treatment, specifically for the case where intended use of the treated wastewater is reuse. In the experimental investigation research, a sequencing batch reactor (RBS) at bench scale was use as post treatment. The experimental results showed that the effluent quality of the RBS post treatment system in relation to organic matter was very good. An algorithm to optimize the RBS reactor was developed and allowed establishing the minimum residence time for the post-treatment in terms of two basic parameters: the utilization constant of biodegradable organic material by heterotrophic bacteria in the post-treatment system and the sludge settleability. The organic material using respirometric constant was determined from the oxygen uptake rate during the post treatment. The sludge from the post-treatment system surprisingly showed a much better settleability than what normally found in activated sludge systems treating raw sewage, which provides a strong argument for the application of the RBS system in practice post-treatment of the UASB reactor effluent.