Abstract
A comparative study on the performance of anaerobic filter and anaerobic hybrid reactor was conducted by using glutamate wastewater as a substrate at 37°C. The inhibition effect caused by high Cl- concentration and the bacterial structure of granule were also investigated in this study. In the anaerobic filter process, over 90% BOD removal efficiency and over 85% COD removal efficiency were obtained under the COD loading rate of below 6.0kg·m-3·d-1. On the other hand, over 86% BOD removal efficiency and over 82% COD removal efficiency were maintained by the anaerobic hybrid reactor until the COD loading rate increased as 12.0 kg·m-3·d-1. The maximum capacity of COD loading rate of the anaerobic hybrid reactor process was 12.0 kg·m-3·d-1 which is 1.5 times of that of the anaerobic filter process. Scanning electron microscopy relealed that the granular sludges from both reactor were multi (three)-layered bacterial structures. The exterior layer and the middle layer consisted predominantly of bacteria cocci, short rods. The third layer formed the internal core of the granules. It consisted of large numbers of Methanothrix-like bacteria. In order to prevent the inhibition effect caused by high Cl- concentration, it is safety to control the influent concentration of Cl- to be below 6,250 mg·l-1.
