Anaerobic Digestion Model to Enhance Treatment of Brewery Wastewater for Biogas Production Using UASB Reactor

Biogas produced from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor is a clean and an environmentally friendly by-product that could be used to meet partial energy needs. In this study, a modified methane generation model (MMGM) was developed on the basis of mass balance principles to predict and increase methane production rate in a UASB reactor during anaerobic fermentation of brewery wastewater. Model coefficients were determined using the data collected from a full-scale reactor. The results showed that the composition of wastewater and operational conditions of the reactor strongly influence the kinetics of the digestion process. Simulation of the reactor process using the model was used to predict the effect of organic loading rate and temperature on methane production with an optimum methane production at 29 °C and 8.26 g COD/L/day. Methane production rate increased from 0.29 to 1.46 L CH4/g COD, when the loading rate was increased from 2.0 to 8.26 g COD/L/day. The results showed the applicability of MMGM to predict usable methane component of biogas produced during anaerobic digestion of brewery wastewater. This study would help industries to predict and increase the generation of renewable energy by improving methane production from a UASB reactor. To the best of our knowledge, MMGM is the first reported developed model that could serve as a predictive tool for brewery wastewater treatment plant available in the literature.