Biologic treatment of wastewater from cassava flour production using vertical anaerobic baffled reactor (VABR)

The estimate cassava production in Brazil in 2007 was of 25 million tons (= 15% of the world production) and most of it is used in the production of flour. During its processing, waste that can cause environmental inequality is generated, if discharged inappropriately. One of the liquid waste generated, manipueira, is characterized by its high level of organic matter. The anaerobic treatment that uses a vertical anaerobic baffled reactor (VABR) inoculated with granulated sludge, is one of the ways of treating this effluent. The anaerobic biodigestion phases are separated in this kind of reactor, allowing greater stability and resistance to load shocks. The VABR was built with a width/height rate of 1:2. The pH, acidity, alkalinity, turbidity and COD removal were analyzed in 6 different regions of the reactor, which was operated with an increasing feeding from ? 2000 to ? 10000 mg COD L?1 and HRT between 6.0 and 2.5 days. The VABR showed decreasing acidity and turbidity, an increase in alkalinity and pH, and 96% efficiency in COD removal with 3-day HRT and feeding of 3800 mg COD L?1.