Design approach of Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket(UASB) process based on the biological kinetic parameters are known to be very difficult since the characteristics of the granular sludge depends on the type of wastewater and size distribution of the granular sludge also depends on the upflow velocity in the UASB reactors. Furthermore, industrial wastewater containing toxic substances has been treated by UASB process without the clear knowledge of toxic effects on the granular sludge. Hence, the present research was aimed on the intensive evaluation of biological kinetic parameters of the granular sludge in UASB reactor with and without toxic substance of 2,4-dichlorophenol in order to present the basic design measures for UASB process design. The results could be summarized as follows. The biological kinetic parameters(k and Ks) considerably varied with the granular size of the sludge. Generally, the k and ks values of the granular sludge increased with the particle size of the granule. The biological kinetic parameters(k and Ks) of the granular sludge obtained from batch test were not applicable to design purpose of UASB process due to substrate diffusional limitation into the granular sludge in the completely mixed UASB reactors. The toxic effects on k and Ks greatly varied with the granular size. And as the toxicant concentration increased, the k value decreased while the Ks value increased. Inhibition constant(ki) for k with the toxicant of 2,4-dichlorophenol varied from 0.5 to 2.3 depending on the granular sizes while the inhibition constant(Ki) for Ks varied from 20.7 to 80.1, showing the mixed inhibition.

Effluent recycling effect on UASB reactor performances is known as an important operational factor. In the present study, the possibility of intermittent recycle in UASB process for saving the power consumption was examined at different organic loading and various operational modes in recycle time period. The organic removal efficiencies of the reactors operated with the intermittent effluent recycle were considerably higher compared to those without the effluent recycle. In the intermittent recycle mode, the organic removal efficiencies slightly decreased as the non-recycle time period in the operational mode increased. Proper ratio of recycle and non-recycle time period in the mode seemed to be required to prevent the produced biogas from accumulation in the sludge bed, which caused dead zone in the reactor and sludge loss when the gas was escaped from the bed at the certain pressure.

This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of effluent recycling on the UASB reactor performances at the various organic loading rates and influent substrate concentrations. The organic removal efficiency of the reactors operated with effluent recycle were above 85%. However, the efficiencies of the reactors operated without the recycle were below 40% even though the effort to increase the efficiencies was made by changing the influent substrate concentrations and the organic loading rates, and introducing the effluent recycle at the final stage of the experiment. It was realized that the certain amount of effluent recycling from the start-up stage in UASB reactors seemed to be necessary to provide the effective contact chances between the substrate and granular sludge for better performances of the UASB