Anaerobic degradation pathway and kinetics of domestic wastewater at low temperatures.

The effect of temperatures below 20 degrees C (20, 15 and 10 degrees C) on the anaerobic degradation pathway and kinetics of domestic wastewater fractionated at different sizes was studied in a fluidized-bed batch reactor. The overall degradation pathway was characterized by a soluble fraction degrading according to zero-order kinetics and a colloidal fraction (between 0.45 and 4.5 microm) that first disintegrates into a particulate fraction smaller than 0.45 microm before finally degrading. The colloidal degradation processes follow a first-order kinetic. In contrast, suspended solids (bigger than 4.5 microm) degrade to soluble and colloidal fractions according to first-order kinetics. The colloidal fraction originating from suspended solids further degrades into soluble fraction. These soluble fractions have the same degradation kinetics as the original soluble fraction. The suspended solids degradation was highly affected by temperature, whereas the soluble fraction slightly affected and the colloidal fraction was not affected at all. On the other hand, the colloidal non-degradable fraction increased significantly with the decrease in temperature while the suspended solids slowly increased. The soluble non-degradable fraction was little affected by temperatures changes.