Low-temperature anaerobic filtration of septic tank effluent

doi:10.1016/0165-232X(91)90039-J

Cold Regions Science and Technology

Volume 19, Issue 3, August 1991, Pages 245-252

https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-232X(91)90039-J Get rights and content

Abstract

A fourteen-month study was conducted to evaluate and compare the performances of three laboratory anaerobic filters treating septic tank effluent, operating at 5°, 10°, and 20°C. It was found that the start-up of an anaerobic filter at 20°C (summer conditions in the Canadian North) is possible with no adverse effects on its future performance. The filter at 20°C performed better than filters at 10° and 5°C; the filter at 5°C was the most affected by operational changes such as changes in HRT.

The BOD values of the filter effluent were generally higher than 30 mg/l; in addition, the effluent coliform levels were also high. Thus direct discharge of the anaerobic filter effluent to the surface water may not be generally acceptable especially under low temperature and low filter HRT conditions.

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Septic tank and septic systems
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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (9)

Restart of anaerobic filters treating low-strength wastewater
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The anaerobic filter (AF) technology offers an alternative method for the direct treatment of low-strength wastewater and the study was undertaken to access AF-biomass reactivation after prolonged nonfeeding periods, an important characteristic making the process suitable for handling variable or intermittent pollution loads. Four upflow AF (three 12.5-L and one 3.9-L, each with different packing), which had treated municipal-type wastewaters (natural, amended or synthetic) for 34 months at 25 or 16 °C and varying hydraulic loads and had remained inactive for 24 months, were used. All units were fed synthetic wastewater [mean chemical oxygen demand (COD) 323 mg/L, total suspended solids (TSS) 47 mg/L] and operated at 27 °C for 2.5 months (phase 1); and following a 6-month idle period, the smaller filter treated municipal wastewater (mean COD and TSS 820 and 448 mg/L) at 16 °C for an additional 2.5 months (phase 2). The larger units operated at a 2.0-d hydraulic retention time and the smaller at 1.0–0.33-d in phase 1 and 2.0 or 1.0-d in phase 2. Reactivation was quick and yielded efficient treatment. Restart was affected by the AF history and packing morphology, the types of wastewater previously handled, and the duration of the nonfeeding period.
Start-up and operation of UASB reactors at 20°C for municipal wastewater treatment
1998, Journal of Fermentation and Bioengineering
Two upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactors (total volume=8l) were started-up at 48 h hydraulic retention time (HRT) and 20°C temperature to examine the application of this technology for the treatment of dilute municipal wastewater under low temperature environments. HRT was reduced gradually to 10 h during 280 d of operation. The total and soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD) of municipal wastewater varied in the range of 350 to 500 mg/l and 150 to 300 mg/l respectively during this period. Under steady-state conditions, the removal of total COD and soluble COD ranged from 60 to 75% and 70 to 85% respectively at each HRT. Sulfate concentration in the influent varied from 50 to 100 mg/l as sulfur (S). About 70 to 80% of sulfate in the influent was reduced, resulting in a low recovery of methane because 30 to 40% of the total COD was consumed in sulfate reduction. Image analysis of sludge samples revealed an aggregation of about 50% of sludge particles in small granular forms with a mean size of about 1.5 mm.
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The effects of wastewater temperature on treatment efficiency in an anaerobic-filter process were examined based on laboratory data on anaerobic filters treating septic-tank effluent, dairy wastewater, slaughterhouse wastewater, potato-processing wastewater and whey wastewater. Three anaerobic filters were operated at 5, 10 and 20°C treating septic-tank effluent at different hydraulic retention times (HRTs), three anaerobic filters treating dairy wastewater were operated at 12.5, 21 and 30°C at different HRTs, an anaerobic filter treating slaughterhouse wastewater was operated at 23.6, 24.3, 25, 26.6, 26.7 and 27.1°C at different HRTs, an anaerobic filter treating potato-processing wastewater was operated at 2, 4, 10 and 20°C and an anaerobic filter treating whey wastewater was operated at 16, 20, 26 and 30°C at different HRTs. Data were analyzed for the effect of temperature using the Arrhenius equation and a relationship was developed between system temperature and first-order rate constant for each anaerobic filter system. The simple kinetic model did not fit the experimental data very well for two of the three wastewaters tested.
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Research paperLow-temperature anaerobic filtration of septic tank effluent

Abstract

Water Res.

The Loves Creek anaerobic up-flow (ANFLOW) pilot plant: performance summary

Septic tank and septic systems

Environ. Sanitation Rev.

Research paper
Low-temperature anaerobic filtration of septic tank effluent