In a high influent loading reactor the bacteria collide with each other due to high flow rate and high shear force.
No significant differences were observed between high and low loaded reactors suggesting the possibility of either improving the OLR in existing anaerobic reactors or reducing the design volumes of new reactors.
In high loading reactors with high activity of ANAMMOX bacteria, the gas bubbles are produced in gas tunnels and gas pockets.
In the beginning of ANAMMOX process discovery the low influent loading rate or moderate influent loading reactors were operated with single ANAMMOX bacteria and there were no problem in reactor operation.
In this way, the catalyst load, the reactor volume and the volumetric flow do impact on the effectiveness factor.
Finally, the key design criteria loading rate, reactor type, oxygen demand, and nutrient requirements are summarized.
At low cell loading (LL reactor), glucose concentration decreased steadily during the first 6 h and then slightly dropped in the last 4 h period.
Furthermore, higher catalyst loads per reactor volume can be achieved with the monolith.
The cycle includes the following steps: day 1: loading the reactor with inoculum, feeding the substrate, and mixing the inoculum and substrate; days 1 21: reaction; and day 21: unloading the digestate and starting the next cycle.
Once the possible causes are known, deactivation mitigation strategies can be defined, which comprise optimizing the catalyst properties, catalyst loading and reactor operation.
