ANAEROBIC TREATMENT OF SYNTHESIZED ORGANIC
CHEMICAL PHARMACEUTICAL WASTES
Eliot F. Sachs, Environmental Process Engineer
Alexander Potter Associates
New York, New York 10048
J.CharlesJennett, Professor
M. C. Rand, Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
Syracuse University
Syracuse, New York  13210
INTRODUCTION
Extensive literature reviews and investigations on the anaerobic filter have been done by
numerous investigators including Mueller and Mancini f 1 ], Young and McCarty [2], Jennett
and Dennis [3], Seeler [4] and Sachs (5).
The anaerobic filter consists of a bed of media similar to that of an aerobic trickling filter
and operates in the absence of free oxygen. The waste to be treated is evenly distributed
across the bottom of the filter and flows upwards so that the filter is completely submerged.
Anaerobic organisms become attached to the media and are trapped in the void spaces. The
waste comes in contact with a large biological mass as it passes through the filter and is stabilized by the metabolic activities of these organisms.   The primary end products of this
process are carbon dioxide and methane and a relatively small quantity of biological cell
mass.
The treatment of wastewaters by anaerobic processes has gained great recognition in the
past few years. Originally, anaerobic processes were primarily utilized for the treatment of
domestic wastewater sludges because aerobic waste treatment systems in most cases provided
a higher degree of treatment with fewer operating problems. The prime advantages of the
anaerobic filter are that a high degree of waste stabilization can be accomplished with a
relatively low production of biological solids, and the need for costly aeration equipment is
eliminated.
Anaerobic processes, most of the time, have been limited to high-strength organic wastes
because of slow growing methane forming microorganisms which require long detention
times and thus large reactor volumes for satisfactory stabilization of lower strength wastes
[2]. The anaerobic filter has been limited mainly to industrial wastewater applications since
its development. Anaerobic contact processes require solids settling and recycle to maintain
a high concentration of active biological solids. Soluble organic wastes frequently present a
problem in these systems because solids usually remain dispersed or slightly flocculated and
may pass out with the effluent. With the development of the anaerobic filter, the filter
media trap and retain the biological solids; thus long solids retention time (SRTs) are obtainable, and the need for solids separation and recycle is eliminated. Therefore, the anaerobic
filter is suited for the treatment of soluble wastes [ 1 ].
The purposes of this investigation were to: (a) study the physical, and chemical composition and variations of a pharmaceutical waste; (b) apply that waste to the anaerobic filter
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