International Journal of Engineering Research in Electronics and Communication Engineering

A dimensionless approach to model granule size variation in UASB reactor: Model development and its validation

Author : Vidya Singh ¹ Ram Pal Singh ² Anuradha Pandey ³ Narendra Deo Pandey ⁴

Date of Publication :11th January 2018

Abstract: Granule size and its variation plays an important role in satisfactory performance of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor especially in treatment of industrial and low strength domestic wastewaters. The present study is aimed to model the granule size variation based on fourteen quantifiable variables influencing the granulation and granular size development in UASB reactor. They include organic loading rate, inflow rate, gas production rate, volatile suspended solids, total suspended solids, specific methenogenic activity, sludge volume index, operation time, time for which constant organic loading rate was maintained during the reactor operation, effluent COD concentration, polymer dosing, liquid upflow velocity, granules settling velocity and reactor diameter. Dimensionless mathematical functions are developed for granule size variation using these variables. The nonlinear multiplier function with each dimensionless terms as power function is subjected to non-linear regression and the function so developed has been then validated using the experimental results from literature. The results show that the developed non-linear function is capable of predicting the granule size variation in UASB reactor satisfactorily with maximum error in prediction being less than 5.5%. The results of sensitivity analysis show that the liquid inflow rate is the most sensitive parameter among the fourteen variables considered in simulation of granule diameter

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