Low-rate anaerobic

Download the ADI-BVF Reactor brochure.

Low-rate anaerobic systems are anaerobic treatment technologies designed specifically to handle wastewaters that are high in suspended solids and/or fats, oils and grease, variable in flow and/or characteristics, or which must be treated under less-than-ideal conditions, such as low temperatures. Organic loadings are low (typically 1.0 to 3.0 kg/m³·d) and hydraulic retention times relatively long (typically greater than 7 days), providing an inherent stability and robustness often not found in higher-rate processes and allowing for significant digestion of influent solids and waste sludge.

ADI has long been the world leader in low-rate anaerobic treatment systems with its patented ADI-BVF^® technology. Since its first use at a potato processing plant in 1979, over 110 ADI-BVF^® systems have been installed worldwide for a wide variety of applications, including distillery, dairy, food processing, and pharmaceutical wastewater treatment.

The ADI-BVF^® Process
Process Advantages of the ADI-BVF^® System
The large volume and inventory of biomass within the BVF^® reactor provides several inherent advantages, including:

1. Treatment is efficient, reliable, and robust, with superior ability to cope with peak loads and spikes (no influent equalization or buffer tanks are proposed).  It is a very forgiving system.
2. Low manpower requirements and low operating and maintenance costs due to it being a simple-to-operate system with low energy consumption.
3. Satisfactory performance over a wide range of temperature conditions (this greatly improves the energy balance, extends anaerobic applicability, and further simplifies the overall system).
4. Eliminates the need for primary treatment of the liquid waste stream (such as the equalization tank and primary clarifier); raw solids after screening are added directly to the ADI-BVF^® reactor where they are digested, producing biogas and minimizing waste sludge handling.
5. Reduced sludge handling, as this system produces very little waste sludge on its own due to the prolonged solids retention time.
6. Able to store sludge within the system such that wasting need only take place once every couple of years and at a time when it is most favorable to do so.  Sludge is typically wasted at a solids concentration of 3 or 4 percent; this sludge is very stable, does not have an offensive odor, and has good fertilizer and soil amendment value.
7. The large physical size of the BVF reactor and volume of biomass maintained in it work together to provide the reactor with inherent stability against shock loadings/conditions (viz., organic, temperature, pH, solids, hydraulic, etc.)

ADI-BVF^® low-rate anaerobic technology is often well suited for the treatment of

• Food and Beverage
• Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology
• Pulp and Paper
• Ethanol Production
• Many other applications.