The Control Strategy and Kinetics of VFAs Production in an ASBR Reactor Treating Low-Strength Mariculture Wastewater

As an environment-friendly wastewater treatment process, the anaerobic fermentation process has been widely used for the pretreatment of high-strength wastewater. However, it is rarely applied to treat low-strength wastewater due to low methane recovery. In this study, anaerobic fermentation treating low-strength mariculture wastewater was studied in an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) with a COD removal rate of 75%. Anaerobic fermentation was successfully controlled at the acidification stage by increasing COD loading. As the greenhouse gas emission decreased, the residual organics were enough for biological nutrients’ removal. Fluorescence in situ hybridization results showed that the dominant bacteria in the ASBR were acidogenic bacteria and methanogens, accounting for 39.7% and 46.5% of the total bacteria, respectively. Through the calculation processing of the experimental data, the order of the anaerobic fermentation reaction was a second-order reaction. The kinetic parameters of low-strength organic wastewater treatment were determined by using the Grau second-order substrate removal model, Stover–Kincannon model, Monod model and Haldane model. The maximum rate removal constant U max , sludge yield coefficient Y and inhibition constant K i were 1.157 g/(L·d), 0.153 mgVSS/mgCOD and 670 mg/L, respectively. It provided data support for the practical application of the anaerobic fermentation treating low-strength wastewater.