Anaerobic baffled reactor to treat fishmeal wastewater with high organic content

This study focuses on the potential of anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) for treating the fishmeal wastewater. This wastewater has a high organic content (140 g COD.L-1), which consists of 60% (w/w) oil and grease (O&G), 27% (w/w) protein, and 13% (w/w) mixture of suspended solids and soluble organic. The ABR reactor volume was 60 L. The ABR was operated with a hydraulic retention time of 20 days. During the operation period, the reactor achieved high performance with the average total and soluble COD removal of approximately 98% and 94%, respectively. The design of ABR compartmentalization advanced this high organic removal performance. There was also the symbiotic activity of specific microbial communities such as Syntrophobacter sulfatireducens and Methanosaeta observed in the reactor's column which contributes to the high organic degradation process of ABR. Overall, this study demonstrated that the application of ABR could be used to treat fishmeal wastewater (C) 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.