Immobilization of a digested anaerobic sludge

Because of the properties of the zeolite, it could be very interesting to consider their use in the immobilization of an anaerobic sludge. in this work, the use of this material as an immobilization matrix for a mixed anaerobic bacterial population was investigated. Several different sizes of zeolite particles, the zeolite/sludge ratio, the contact time between the sludge and the zeolite particles, and the temperature were correlated. A factorial fractional design (2(4-1)) was used and calculation of the polynomial coefficients was done by the usual matrix regression method. From the analysis of the coefficients it was concluded that it is better to decrease the time of contact between the sludge and zeolite to 2 days. The data presented in this paper also showed that zeolite can be utilized as a support for a mixed anaerobic population in an anaerobic digested sludge.