Upflow fixed bed bioelectrochemical reactor for wastewater treatment applications

A cylindrical Upflow Fixed Bed Reactor (UFB-BER) with granular activated carbon, steel mesh electrodes and anaerobic microorganisms, was constructed for analyzing how hydrodynamic parameters affect the reactions involved during wastewater treatment processes for azo dye degradation. Dye removal percentage was not compromised by decreasing HRTm (99-90% upon changing HRTm from 4 to 1 h in single pass mode). Using the residence time distribution method for hydrodynamic characterization, it was found that a higher dispersion in the reactor occurs for HRTm = 1 h, than for HRTm = 4 h. A kinetic analysis suggests that this dispersion effect could be associated to a higher specific reaction rate dependent on the azo dye concentration.