DETAILED MODELING OF UPFLOW ANAEROBIC FIXED FILM REACTORS

Abstract

Upflow anaerobic fixed film reactors with high retention time or discontinuously loaded may result in rather large microbial aggregate fragments that are retained in the reactor. A structured model, based on the dynamics of a discrete bivariant distribution of sizes of bacterial aggregates and gas bubbles, has been developed which offers a methodological way to formulate hypothesis, detect some limit situations and achieve a mathematical syn- thesis of empirical knowledge about the considered phenomena. Experimental validation of the model has been carried out with satisfactory results.