A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development

Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1985

This study was conducted to check the treatment by aerob-thermophile process for distillery wastewater. Heat generation by the treatment process in a 15-litre laboratory scale insulated reactor was studied. Compression air was used to oxidize the low biodegradable distillery wastewater. The treatment process was studied under two operating conditions with recycling. In the first condition, treatment process was carried out at an operating temperature of 56 ̕c, hydraulic retention time of 2.29 day and air flow rate of 0.67 L/s. A 53% removal in filtered TOC, 52% removal in filtered COD, 58.5% removal in VSS and 43.4% removal in TS was found. In operating condition 2, the process temperature was changed to 53 ̕c hydraulic detention time was reduced to 1.77 day and air flow rate was increased to 1.0 L/s. A 10.3% increased reduction in filtered TOC and 28.6% increased reduction in filtered COD was observed. The best concentration of MLVSS was found to be in a range of 8,000 mg/L - 12,000 mg/L for both the conditions. The aeration process took very high quantity of water with it from the reactor and heat losses because of vaporization became very high. The study revealed that the process was not selt-sustained. A large amount of external heat was required to maintain thermophilic temperature.