The effect of shock loading on the performance of a thermophilic anaerobic contact reactor at constant organic loading rate

The influences of organic loading disturbances on the process performance of a thermophilic anaerobic contactreactor treating potato-processing wastewater were investigated. for this purpose, while the reactor was operatedat steady state conditions with organic loading rate of 5.5 kg cod/m3 · day, an instant acetate concentrationincrease (1 g/l) was introduced to the reactor. during the shock loading test of acetate, it was observed that theoverall process performance was adversely affected by all the shock loading, however, the system reached steadystate conditions less than 24 hours of operation indicating that thermophilic anaerobic contact reactor is resistantto shock loading and be capable of returning its normal conditions within a short time period.