Comparative study of the removal of sulfate by UASB in light and dark environment

At present, the application of sewage treatment technologies is restricted by high sulfate concentrations. In the present work, the sulfate removal was biologically treated using an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) in the absence/presence of light. First, the start-up of UASB for the sulfate removal was studied in terms of COD degradation, sulfate removal, and effluent pH. Second, the impacts of different operation parameters (i.e., COD/SO 4 2− ratio, temperature and illumination time) on the UASB performance were explored. Third, the properties of sludge derived from the UASB at different time were analyzed. Results show that after 28 days of start-up, the COD removal efficiencies in both the photoreactor and non-photoreactor could reach a range of 85–90% while such reactors could achieve > 90% of sulfate being removed. Besides, higher illumination time could facilitate the removal of pollutants in the photoreactor. To sum up, the present study can provide technical support for the clean removal of sulfate from wastewater using photoreactors.