Methane Production from Confectionery Wastewater Treated in the Anaerobic Labyrinth-Flow Bioreactor.

Production and consumption of confectionery products have increased worldwide, thus, effective management of wastewater produced is now an important issue. The confectionery high-load sewage was explored for biogas production in an innovative-design anaerobic reactor with labyrinth flow. The experimental studies were focused on determining the best technological parameters of anaerobic digestion for the effective removal of pollutants and obtaining high CH₄ production efficiency. It was found that organic loading rate (OLR) of 5.0–6.0 g COD/L·d contributed to the highest CH₄ generation of 94.7 ± 6.1 to 97.1 ± 5.1 L CH₄/d, which corresponded to a high COD removal of 75.4 ± 1.5 to 75.0 ± 0.6%. Under such conditions the FOS/TAC ratio was below 0.4, indicating reactor stability, and pH was on the level of 7.15 ± 0.04 at OLR 5.0 g COD/L·d and 7.04 ± 0.07 at OLR 6.0 g COD/L·d. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]