Treatment of Domestic Sewage by Using 3D Printing Anaerobic Bio-carriers

Abstract. Anaerobic digestion was normally used in treatment of high organic wastes and not considered as the sole treatment for domestic sewage. However, its advantages in saving aeration energy and production of combustible biogas – methane, a cleaner energy than traditional fossil fuel, makes it more attractive nowadays. Bio-carrier has been broadly used in wastewater treatment for its portability and effectiveness. Some factors such as specific area, porosity and water flow will affect its performance. In this study, 3-D printing had been applied in fabricating the bio-carriers to deal with these difficulties. Experiments were conducted at different hydraulic retention times (HRT). The water characteristics including pH, total solids (TS), suspended solids (SS) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) for both influent and effluent, and the gas production, methane content were monitored to investigate the optimal design and operational strategy for the 3-D printing bio-carriers. Experimental results showed the anaerobic reactor packed with the 3-D bio-carriers could treat the low concentration wastewater at a very short HRT of 1.5 hours and able to meet the EPA effluent standard successfully.