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11th International Congress on Environmental
International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software - Brussels, Belgium -
Modelling and Software June 2022

Jul 8th, 9:20 AM - 9:40 AM

Performance of Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor with

Trickling Filter in Poorly Managed Sewer Network
Rahel Sintayehu Tessema
Ethiopian Civil Service University; Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Rahel.Sintayehu.Tessema@vub.be

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Tessema, Rahel Sintayehu, "Performance of Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor with Trickling Filter
in Poorly Managed Sewer Network" (2022). International Congress on Environmental Modelling and
Software. 6.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/iemssconference/2022/Stream-E/6

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 International Congress on
Environmental Modelling & Software iEMSs
11th International Congress on Environmental Modelling and Software
Brussels, Belgium, Ann van Griensven, Jiri Nossent, Stefan Reis (Eds.)
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/iemssconference/2022/

Performance of Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor with

Trickling Filter in Poorly Managed Sewer Network

Rahel Sintayehu Tessemaa, b *

a
Ethiopian Civil Service University, bVrije Universiteit Brussel

* Rahel.Sintayehu.Tessema@vub.be

Presented: On 2022-07-08 09:20:00

Abstract: Due to increased water consumption and pressing environmental requirements of the sewage
treatment plant, there is a growing attention in urban area of developing country. Given poorly planned,
design and management practice of sewerage infrastructure in developing countries, the performance of
well-known biological wastewater treatment options worth to evaluate considering operational and
maintenance guidelines. This study aimed at evaluating the operational efficiency of Upflow Anaerobic
Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor with Trickling filter (TF) in the presence of recirculating sludge in treating
domestic sewage where the sewer network is poorly managed. The case study performed on Kality
wastewater treatment plant in Addis Ababa city. Using standard methods of wastewater examination, the
study analyzed the major water quality parameters, such as biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical
oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS) for 30 days from May 11, - June 9, 2021. The daily
average performance efficiency of UASB reactor were 73% removal for BOD5; 66% removal for COD. TSS
removal rate obtained 63% which is lower than design value of 70%. Similarly, the performance efficiency
of TF with secondary clarifier was higher than 75% and 70% for BOD5 and COD respectively. The overall
removal efficiencies obtained are 63 – 91% for BOD5, 64 – 84% for COD, 60 – 92% for TSS. The corresponding
effluent daily average concentration are 125mg/l for COD, 62mg/l for BOD5 and 86mg/l; effluent quality
design limit is 100mg/L for COD and 35mg/L for BOD5 and TSS. The overall performance of the plant
achieved the national environmental discharge limit of inland water with the exception to solids i.e
Chromium and Magnesium. However, the effluent quality was not reached the design standard of reusing
for irrigation.

Keywords: Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor; Trickling filter (TF); performance efficiency;
biological oxygen demand (BOD5); chemical oxygen demand (COD); total suspended solids (TSS)