7. Hybrid Anaerobic Baffled Reactor and Upflow Anaerobic Filter for Domestic Wastewater Purification

Anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) is an expanded septic tank consisting of a series of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) processes without granulation for its treatment. The vertical baffled series in ABR stimulates the wastewater to flow through several compartments as it passes from inlet to outlet. Despite the ABR recognition for low operating and maintenance cost and high removal of organic matter and solids, the existing ABR reportedly has more deficient nutrient and pathogen removal performance. This study investigated the reduction of the pathogen from domestic wastewater through the hybrid system of the ABR and upflow anaerobic filter (UAF). Experiments were conducted at the ABR site in Islamic Boarding School in Malang, and untreated sewage was taken from the inlet. The untreated wastewater is fed into lab-scale ABR with a 145 cm × 45 cm × 50 cm dimension with several natural filter media. The rate of the wastewater was 220 ml/min with a detention time of 24 h. The wastewater which flew through ABR was then re-treated using UAF to eliminate the pathogen from wastewater. The hybrid system proved the efficiency of removing 88, 78, 90, 70, 34, and 75% for BOD, COD, TSS, NH₃, PO₄, and total coliform. Therefore, this hybrid treatment can be considered a low-cost treatment to produce an alternative to clean water resources.