Effects of temperature and HRT on performance of a novel insulated anaerobic filter (IAF) system incorporated with the waste heat input for building wastewater treatment

Effects of temperature and hydraulic retention time (HRT) on the performance of the novel insulated anaerobic filter system (IAF) incorporated with the waste heat input in treating building wastewater were investigated. In this study, an electric heater was used to simulate the waste heat input from air conditioner to the IAF system. The wastewater was collected from an office building in Phitsanulok province, Thailand. The HRTs of IAF system were varied to 9, 18 and 27 h, whereas the water temperatures were raised from 30 °C to 35 °C, 40 °C and 45 °C by electric heating to the IAF tank with the covered insulator. From the results, it was found that the IAF system with HRT 27 h and water temperature 35 °C had the highest removal efficiencies for SS, COD, TKN and TP at 67.71, 61.35, 51.20 and 20.08%, respectively per applied heat energy of 4.70 Wh. The predominant bacteria and Archaea species in the system were Uncultured Flavobacterium sp. and Uncultured Methanosaeta sp. The performance index of the IAF system was developed in this study as the highest treatment performance per lowest energy consumption. Therefore, the IAF system incorporated with waste heat input can be a challenging on-site wastewater treatment system for further usage of renewable energy from waste heat as well as environmental conservation.