Comparison of the treatment of a synthetic meat waste by mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic fluidized bed reactors

Abstract Thermophilic anaerobic fluidised bed reactors (AFBRs) were shown to achieve inferior COD removal efficiencies in comparison to mesophilic AFBRs treating a synthetic meat waste. Organic removal efficiencies of 45.6–83.7% were observed for mesophilic reactors over a range of COD loadings between 0.5 ‐ 32 kg m‐3 d‐1, while removal efficiencies of the thermophilic reactors were between 33.1–62% over the same range. The optimum hydraulic retention time (HRT) was found to lie within the range of 6–13 h at a COD loading of 4.6 kg m‐3 d‐1. There appeared to be little difference between the optimum HRT for thermophilic and mesophilic reactors.