الفهرس 
Chapter 1: IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Experimental investigation on the utilization of alternative low cost packing materials in anaerobic biofiltration reactors was conducted. Two experimental set-ups were constructed and consisted of four 9 cm diameter columns packed with either plastic fibers or polyurethane grains Dream cobs or wood cubes, with void volumes of 5,2.6,3.6 and 3.7 1 for the first experiment and 1.75,4.4,3.5 and 3.151 for the second experiment. Controlled flow of synthetic wastewater was introduced into the reactors in an up - flow mode using multi -channel peristaltic pump to represent hydraulic retention times (HRT) of 12, 24, and 48 hours.
Ambient temperature was thermostatically controlled by using a glass green house for first experimental set-up and using two water baths for the second experimental set-up, at ranges 18, 15, and 35 ± 1°C.
The influence of organic loading rates of 0.5, 1, 2, and 3.0 (kg COD/m3.d) upon process jJerformance were investigated by changing th~ influent concentration and/or the influent flow rate to study the capability of this system for treating domestic and industrial wastewater in small communities.
f The pH was kept constant in the range 6.8 - 7.2 during the study using 10% acetic acid and 50% sodium hydroxide solutions. The quantity and composition of the methane produced was from 55 % to 65 % at steady state conditions.
The percentage removal of soluble COD was high with 95 % removal observed in all reactors at loadings of 0.5 to 1.0 kg COD/m3.d. At organic loading rate 3.0 kg COD/m3.d, the reactor filled with wood cubes gave the best substrate degradation compared with the rest of reactors. The reactor filled with corn cobs gave the lowest COD removal.
Process configurations of hybrid and fully packed reactors, temperature effects and a study of the biofilm characteristics on the process performance using these low cost carriers have been carried out.
Mathematical reactor and kinetic modelling have been used to describe and explain the experimental results. Kinetic constants and comparison between measured and calculated values
nave been presented at all phases of experiments. Mathematical models for biomass yield fficient, growth rate, specific growth rate and saturation coefficient have been developed to avoid the difficulty of accurate measuring. These proposed models were checked experimentally and proved to be satisfactory and agreed with the Monod Kinetics model.
The study has proved the viability of anaerobic biological filters for wastewater treatment as an appropriate and economically sound technology specially in tropical countries