Revista de biorremediación y biodegradación

Abstracto

Kinetics of Organic Matter Degradation in an Upflow Anaerobic Filter Using Slaughterhouse Wastewater

Edith Padilla-Gasca and Alberto López López

An assessment of a lab-scale Upflow Anaerobic Filter (UAF) reactor used to treat slaughterhouse wastewater was
carried out with varying operating conditions for Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) and temperature. The best organic
matter removal efficiency, measured as Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), was 86.1% at HRT of 24h at 35ºC. Under
steady state conditions, the first-order, Stover-Kincannon and Grau-second-order kinetic models were used to represent
the kinetics of organic matter removal in the UAF. The experimental data showed that the Stover-Kincannon and Grau
kinetic models were the most suitable for predicting organic matter degradation. The kinetic analysis was used to
establish two exponential relationships for determining the kinetic constants for both the Stover-Kincannon and Grau
models as a function of temperature within the mesophilic interval studied. The results from this research study enable
the determination of organic matter velocities, times and efficiencies of degradation which can be used in the design of
an UAF for slaughterhouse wastewater.