Optimization of the electron donor supply to sulphate reducing bioreactors treating inorganic wastewater

263 Pages·2018·4.487 MB·English

by  Reyes-Alvarado, Luis Carlos

OPTIMIZATION OF THE
ELECTRON DONOR SUPPLY TO
SULPHATE REDUCING
BIOREACTORS TREATING
INORGANIC WASTEWATER
Luis Carlos Reyes Alvarado
Optimization of the electron donor

supply to sulphate reducing

bioreactors treating inorganic

wastewater
Joint PhD degree in Environmental Technology

Docteur de l’Université Paris-Est
Spécialité : Science et Technique de l’Environnement

Dottore di Ricerca in Tecnologie Ambientali

Degree of Doctor in Environmental Technology

Thèse – Tesi di Dottorato – PhD thesis

Luis Carlos Reyes Alvarado

Optimization of the electron donor supply to sulphate reducing bioreactors
treating inorganic wastewater

Defended on December 16th, 2016

In front of the PhD committee

Dr. Artin Hatzikioseyian Reviewer
Prof. Dr. Erkan Sahinkaya Reviewer
Prof. Dr. Ir. Piet Lens Promotor
Dr. Eldon R. Rene Co-promotor
Prof. Dr. Giovanni Esposito Co-promotor
Prof. Dr. Michel Madon Co-promotor
Hab. Dr. Eric D. van Hullebusch Examiner

Erasmus Joint Doctorate Programme in Environmental Technology for Contaminated Solids,
Soils and Sediments (ETeCoS3)
Thesis commettee

Promotor
Prof. Dr. Ir. Piet N. L. Lens
Professor of Environmental Biotechnology
UNESCO‐IHE
Delft, The Netherlands

Co-promotors
Dr. Eldon R. Rene
Senior Lecturer in Resource Recovery Technology
UNESCO‐IHE
Delft, The Netherlands

Prof. Dr. Giovanni Esposito
Professor in Environmental Engineering
University of Cassino and Southern Lazio
Cassino, Italy

Prof. Dr. Michel Madon
Professor in Biogeochemistry
University of Paris‐Est
Marne‐la‐Vallée, France

Other members
Dr. Artin Hatzikioseyian
School of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering
National Technical University of Athens (NTUA), Greece

Prof. Dr. Erkan Sahinkaya
Professor of Bioengineering
Medeniyet Üniversitesi
Goztepe, Istanbul, Turkey

Hab. Dr. Eric D. van Hullebusch
Hab. Associate Professor in Biogeochemistry
University of Paris‐Est
Marne‐la‐Vallée, France

This research was conducted under the auspices of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in
Environmental Technologies for Contaminated Solids, Soils, and Sediments (ETeCoS3) and
the Graduate School for Socio‐Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE).
CRC Press/Balkema is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2018, Luis Carlos Reyes-Alvarado

Although all care is taken to ensure integrity and the quality of this publication and the
information herein, no responsibility is assumed by the publishers, the author nor IHE Delft
for any damage to the property or persons as a result of operation or use of this publication
and/or the information contained herein.
A pdf version of this work will be made available as Open Access via
http://repository.tudelft.nl/ihe This version is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License,
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Published by:
CRC Press/Balkema
Schipholweg 107C, 2316 XC, Leiden, the Netherlands
[email protected]
www.crcpress.com – www.taylorandfrancis.com
ISBN: 978-1-138-34331-3

Table of contents
LIST OF FIGURES XIV

LIST OF TABLES XVI

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS XIX

ABSTRACT XX

RESUMÉ XXII

SAMENVATTING XXIV

SOMMARIO XXVI

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Backg round 2
1.2 The PhD thesis structure 4
1.3 References 6

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 9
Abstract 10
2.1 Anaerobic digestion 11
2.1.1 Hydrolysis-fermentation 11
2 .1.2 Acetogenesis 11
2.1.3 Methanogenesis 12

2.2 The sulphate reduction process 13
2.2.1 Sulphur cycle 13
2 .2.2 Biological sulphate reduction 14
2.2.3 Sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB) 17

2.3 Electron donors for SRB 18
2.3.1 Organic solids 19
2.3.1.1 Starch 19
2.3 .1.2 Cellulose 20
2.3.1.3 Proteins 20
2.3.1.4 Chitin 21
2.3.2 Se lection of electron donors for biological sulphate reduction 21
2.3.2.1 Efficiency of sulphate removal 22
2.3 .2.2 Availability and cost of electron donor 22
2.3.3 En vironmental parameters affecting sulphate reduction 23

vii
2.3.3.1 Temperature 23
2.3.3.2 pH and S2- concentration 23
2.3.3.3 Hydraulic retention time (HRT) 24

2.4 Con ventional bioreactors for sulphate reduction 24
2.4.1 UASB bioreactor 26
2 .4.2 Inverse fluidized bed reactor 26
2.4.3 Factors affecting bioreactor performance 28
2.4 .3.1 Characteristics of organic substrate 28
2.4 .3.2 Particle size of electron donors 29
2.4.3.3 Source of inoculum 30
2.4.3.4 Physical and chemical conditions in a bioreactor 30
2.4.3.5 Biomass morphology 31

2.5 Mod elling biological sulphate reduction 32
2.5.1 Monod type modelling for biological sulphate reduction 32
2 .5.2 Artificial neural network (ANN) based modeling 33
2.5 .2.1 Fundamentals of ANN 33
2.5 .2.2 Multi-layer perceptron 34
2.5.2.3 Back propagation algorithm 34
2.5.2.4 Internal network parameters 35
2.5.2.5 ANN modelling for bioreactors 36

2.6 Con clusions 38
2.7 References 38

CHAPTER 3 FORECASTING THE EFFECT OF FEAST AND FAMINE
CONDITIONS ON BIOLOGICAL SULPHATE REDUCTION IN AN ANAEROBIC
INVERSE FL UIDIZED BED REACTOR USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL
NETWORKS 51
Abstract 52
3.1 Introduction 53
3.2 Material and methods 56
3.2.1 Synthetic wastewater composition 56
3 .2.2 Carrier material 56
3.2.3 Inoculum 56
3.2.4 Anaerobic IFB bioreactor set up 57
3.2.5 IFB bioreactor operational conditions 57
3.2.6 RTD studies 58
3.2.7 Chemical analysis 59
3.2.8 Data processing 59
3.2 .8.1 Performance and comparison of the IFB bioreactors 59
3.2 .8.2 Evaluation of RTD 60
3.2.8.3 ANN modelling 60

3.3 Resu lts 65
3.3.1 RTD of the IFB bioreactor 65

viii
3.3.2 Biological sulphate reduction under steady state feeding conditions 66
3.3.3 Biological sulphate reduction under non steady feeding conditions 71
3.3.4 ANN Modelling 72
3.3 .4.1 Selecting the best training network parameters 72
3.3.5 ANN model predictions and sensitivity analysis 74

3.4 Discussion 76
3.4.1 Performance of the IFB bioreactors under steady feeding conditions (periods I-IV)
76
3.4.2 Effect of transient feeding conditions on IFB bioreactor operation 77
3.4.3 Ro bustness of biological sulphate reduction in IFB bioreactors 79
3.4.4 ANN modelling and transient feeding conditions 80

3.5 Conclusions 82
3.6 References 82

CHAPTER 4 HIGH RATE BIOLOGICAL SULPHATE REDUCTION IN A
LACTATE FED INVERSE FLUIDIZED BED REACTOR AT A HYDRAULIC
RETENTION TIME OF 3 H 89
Abstract 90
4.1 Introduction 91
4.2 Material and methods 92
4.2.1 Synthetic wastewater 92
4 .2.2 Inoculum 92
4.2.3 Carrier material 92
4.2.4 Anaerobic inverse fluidized bed bioreactor 93
4.2.5 Hydrodynamic evaluation of the IFB 93
4.2 .5.1 Residence time distribution 93
4.2 .5.2 Bed expansion 94
4.2.6 Re actor operation conditions 94
4.2.7 Ch emical analysis 95
4.2.8 Kinetic analysis 97
4.2 .8.1 Second order substrate removal model 97
4.2 .8.2 The Stover-Kincannon model 97

4.3 Resu lts 98
4.3.1 Hydrodynamic evaluation 98
4.3.1.1 Residence time distribution 98
4.3 .1.2 Relative bed expansion 98
4.3.2 Su lphate reduction in the high rate IFBB 100
4.3.2.1 Sulphate and COD removal efficiency 100
4.3 .2.2 Sulphide production in the IFBB 102
4.3.2.3 The pH in the IFBB during the biological sulphate reduction 102
4.3.2.4 Biomass production during the IFBB operation 102
4.3.3 Ki netic analysis of the IFBB performance 103
4.3.3.1 Grau second order substrate removal 103
4.3 .3.2 The Stover-Kincannon model 103

ix