Full scale experiences with anaerobic/aerobic treatment plants in the food and beverage industry

In Germany, there are currently 125 full-scale anaerobic treatment plants treating industrial wastewater. This paper describes the operational experiences of several industries (beet sugar, starch, pectin brewery, distillery, vegetable, potato processing) which undertake anaerobic wastewater treatment, with particular emphasis on specific wastewater problems and their solutions. Also presented are experiences with the handling of high nitrate concentrations, with the treatment of mixtures of industrial wastewater from different origins, with the chance to prevent the emergence of lime, magnesium ammonium phosphate (MAP) or aluminium precipitation. This paper deals as well with the first EGSB reactor (Expanded Granular Sludge Bed) at a German potato processing factory as well as the first municipal wastewater treatment plant combined with a separate anaerobic stage to treat a wastewater mixture from several small factories.