KINETICS OF ANAEROBIC PURIFICATION OF INDUSTRIAL WASTE-WATER

As a part of the development of an integral mathematical model describing the up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor, the kinetics of the conversion of organic wastes has to be known. We compared the Monod model with the model proposed by J. F. Andrews et al. Together with the assumption that the substrate for the anaerobic bacteria is formed by nonionized, volatile fatty acids, the Andrews model is able to describe substrate inhibition and reactor failure due to pH changes. From four batch experiment, with different concentrations of microorganisms, it could be concluded with a reliability of over 95% that the Monod model was inadequate and Andrews' model was adequate to describe the measurements. Standard statistical techniques like the chi **2** minus and the F-test were used for this purpose.