Anaerobic Biological Treatment of Water-soluble Copolymer Contained Industrial Wastewater Coupled with Down-flow Hanging Sponge Reactor

Water-soluble copolymers have widely used in many applications such as detergents, paints, and chemical intermediates. After used in the industrial process, it is discarded as wastewater. However, most of synthetic water-soluble copolymers have low biodegradability under aerobic condition. In this study, a combined anaerobic-aerobic system consisting of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor and a down-flow hanging sponge (DHS) reactor was applied to the treatment of industrial wastewater containing the low biodegradability water-soluble copolymer consisted of ethylene glycol and propylene glycol (molecular weight: 8,500). The UASB reactor enhanced biodegradability of wastewater and performed 61±16% of COD removal efficiency with organic loading rate of 2.12 kg-COD·m-3·day-1. The total system achieved high COD removal of 86±7%.