Combined biologic (anaerobic-aerobic) and chemical treatment of starch industry wastewater

A combined biologic and chemical treatment of high-strength (total chemical oxygen demand [CODtot] up to 20 g/L), strong nitrogenous (total N up to 1 g/L), and phosphoric (total P up to 0.4 g/L) starch industry wastewater was investigated at laboratory-scale level. As a principal step for COD elimination, upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactor performance was investigated at 30°C. Under hydraulic retention times (HRTs) of about 1 d, when the organic loading rates were higher than 15g of COD/(L·d), the CODtot removal varied between 77 and 93%, giving effluents with a COD/N ratio of 4–5∶1, approaching the requirements of subsequent denitrification. The activated sludge reactor operating in aerobic-anoxic regime (HRT of about 4 d, duration of aerobic and anoxic phases of 30 min each) was able to remove up to 90% of total nitrogen and up to 64% of CODtot from the anaerobic effluents under 17–20°C. The coagulation experiments with Fe(III) showed that 1.4 mg of resting hardly biodegradable COD and 0.5 mg of phosphate (as P) could be removed from the aerobic effluents by each milligram of iron added.