ABHISHEK TYAGI*, MOHD. SALIM, PRATIBHA NAITHANI AND M. K. GUPTA
Department of Environmental Science, Graphic Era (Deemed to be University), Dehradun-248 002 (Uttarakhand), India
*(e-mail: abhishektyagi34@gmail.com; Mobile: 90454 48389)
(Received: July 15, 2023; Accepted: September 4, 2023)
ABSTRACT
Anaerobic treatment is an alternative and effective method for treatment of effluent generated from the paper mills. The generation of biogas, a renewable energy resource as a byproduct of the anaerobic treatment, is the major attraction to this treatment method. A laboratory prototype of UASB reactor was fabricated to treat the effluent collected from RCF based kraft paper mill to evaluate the production of biogas. The experiments were carried out at mesophilic temperature range (35-39°C) at variable organic loading rate (OLR). The hydraulic retention time (HRT) was maintained around 11 h during all the experiments. One-way ANOVA was used to determine the significance of results for biogas production at different OLR. The experimental finding indicated that the RCF based kraft paper mill effluent had a good potential for treatment through the process of bio-methanation, which when incorporated as pre- treatment step, improved the overall performance of Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) along with added advantage of biogas generation. The optimum OLR at which maximum COD reduction of around 72% and along with biogas generation of 0.56 m3/kg COD reduction was achieved around 9.14 kg COD/m3 day.
Key words : Anaerobic digestion, biogas, effective OLR, kraft paper mill effluent, metahne