Biological Treatment of Metoprolol Contaminated Wastewater using Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) Reactor

Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactors have been widely used for treatment of industrial wastewater. In this study, performance of a lab-scale up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor, treating a chemical synthesis-based pharmaceutical wastewater, was evaluated under different operating conditions. Tubular section is a 240 cm long column with 14 cm internal diameter (ID) and a volume of 9.2 liters. The length of the gas-liquid-solid separator is 80 cm and volume is 20.4 litres The GLSS section is further separated into two parts, bottom half is tapered with a slope angle of 60 and top half is a 20 cm long column with an internal diameter of 22 cm. The COD concentrations used in the present investigation 9900mg/L. At steady state conditions, the reactor resulted in 65 % of COD and 70.2 % of Metoprolol removal efficiency accounting for Substrate Degradation Rate (SDR) of 2.72 kg COD/ m3. d During this study, which lasted for 60 days actual organic loading rate (OLR actual) of 4.25 kg COD/ m -d, the temperature of the wastewater entering the reactor ranged from 30 to 350C, Oxidation Reduction potential was between no heat exchanger was used.