The present research was carried out in the Laboratory of Water Analysis at the Engineering Department at Federal University of Lavras (LWAED-UFLA), in order to evaluate the hydrodynamic behavior of a lab-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB) that was continuously fed with liquid effluent from swine manure with solid separation over 2mm. The hydrodynamic parameters were determined by a tracer study, under hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 12 hours, using Lithium Chloride (LiCl) as a tracer. The system was monitored periodically through physical analysis of samples collected at UASB, during the steady-state operational conditions. The physical-chemical analyses were accomplished using a flame photometry. The operational average temperature in the UASB reactor was 23.9ºC .The UASB hydrodynamic parameters determined were: average residence time (<img src="/img/revistas/cagro/v33n4/t4_barra.gif" align="absmiddle">) of 38.3 h, number of dispersion d= 0.27, and the flow type was characterized as dispersed flow of great intensity. This research is of great importance due to the fact that the scaling-up of biological reactors is based on the hydrodynamic behavior, through which the bacterial kinetic is directly influenced, as reported by Saleh (2004).
Hydrodynamic; hydraulic retention time; tracer studies; UASB reactor
