In this work it was evaluated the effect of swine wastewater with total suspended solid (TSS) concentration around 6000 mg L-1 (CODtotal from 7557 to 11640 mg L-1) on the performance of two stage anaerobic process constituted of anaerobic baffled reactors (ABR) and an upflow sludge blanket reactor (UASB) installed in series, in pilot scale testing (volumes of 530 L and 120 L, respectively) and with hydraulic detention times (HDT) of 56 to 18 h in the first reactor and 13 to 4 h in the second reactor. The mean CODtotal removal efficiency varied from 71.1 to 87.5% in ABR and from 41.5 to 50.1% in UASB reactor, resulting in average values ranging from 86.8 to 94.9% for the two stage anaerobic treatment system under organic volumetric load (OVL) of 5.05 to 10.12 kg CODtotal (m³ d)-1 in ABR and 2.83 to 9.63 kg CODtotal (m³ d)-1 in UASB reactor. The mean TSS and VSS removal efficiencies reached 95.6%. The methane concentration was over 70% for both reactors. The maximum volumetric methane production in the first reactor was obtained with OVL of 10.12 kg CODtotal (m³ d)-1 and HDT of 18 hours of 0.755 m³ CH4 (m³ d)-1. The average pH values in the effluents ranged from 7.2 to 8.0 in the first and second reactors. The total volatile acid concentration was kept below 200 mg L-1. The reactors tolerated shock organic loads maintaining COD and SS removal efficiencies around 70% and biogas quality with 80% of CH4.
anaerobic digestion; anaerobic baffled reactor; swine waste
