THEORETICAL CONSIDERATION ON THE TREATMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF VOLATILE FATTY ACIDS IN COMPLETELY MIXED ANAEROBIC BIOFILM REACTORS

Abstract

A mathematical biofilm model was developed considering substrate decomposition and diffusion rates in a regime of consecutive reactions. By using the model, removal rates of propionate, butyrate and an acid mixture within anaerobic biofilms, as well as the rates of intermediate acetate, were analized to obtain biofilm parameters which specified treatment characteristics.
Variations of the biofilm parameters, i. e. dimensionless biofilm property (M_A, M_p, M_B) and operation parameter (Pe_A, Pe_p, Pe_B), were represented as a function of the attached biomass. By using these parameters, treatment characteristics of anaerobic biofilm reactors in the methane production phase were simply and accurately evaluated.