Abstract: Distilleries are one of the most polluting industries generating large volume of wastewater having a serious environmental concern. The aim of this work is to study the treatment of grain based distillery spent wash by a downflow digester. The digester was fabricated and packed with polyvinyl chloride pipe pieces and it was air tight sealed to maintain anaerobic conditions. The start up period, stability and performance of this digester were assessed at influent temperature 320C. Parameters such as pH and biogas were analysed daily, COD and BOD were analysed at selected HRT. The digester showed maximum COD and BOD removal efficiency of 84.19% and 86.37% at Organic loading rate (OLR) of 13.33 kgCOD/m3.d. Start up period required by the digester was 48 days. Maximum biogas production was observed 2.355 L/d at 1 day HRT. BOD and COD removal increased as the HRT decreased from 6 to 3 days. A decline removal was noticed after HRT reduced from 3 to 1 day. Thus AFBD digester can be used for treating distillery wastewater and for producing biogas. This approach could be used to develop a cost-effective, eco-friendly biotechnology package for the bioremediation of spent wash before its disposal.....
Keywords: Grain based distillery wastewater, downflow digester, anaerobic digestion, biogas
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