Análise da influência do sentido de escoamento no desempenho de reatores anaeróbios na remoção de sólidos utilizando pneu triturado como suporte para imobilização celular

Abstract

The present work aimed to evaluate the influence of the flow direction on the removal of total and suspended solids in continuous flow and fixed bed anaerobic reactors using the crushed tire as filler. Thus, two 5.9-liter anaerobic reactors were operated, filled with crushed tire with 2.4 mm particle size and reverse flow directions. Due to laboratory limitations, the two reactors operated at different times, but with the same operating time of 1 month, which resulted in eight samples, all analyzed at the Campus do Sertão Environmental Sanitation Laboratory. The results favored the downward flow direction, which obtained 47% of Total Suspended Solids removal and 34% of Total Solids removal, while in the opposite direction efficiencies were obtained for the same parameters of 30 and 33%, respectively. During the analysis of the results, the downflow system was more stable, that is, with less removal efficiency variation, which did not happen with the reverse direction reactor, which obtained higher instability due to more frequent operational problems. Comparing the results with the literature, it was concluded that the downflow direction reactor is more efficient in removing solids. suspended and total when compared with the upflow direction reactor as It was also concluded that the crushed tire with 2.4 mm of particle size was not a good material since it did not have a sufficient physical barrier, justified by the low removal of Total Solids and Fixed Suspended.