Fractional-Order Model (FOM) for high-strength substrate biodegradation in conventional UASB reactor

This paper introduces a Fractional-Order Model (FOM) of Up-flow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor for wastewater treatment regarding high-strength substrate biodegradation. The model can investigate the biogas production rate as well as the specific growth rate of bacteria with extra degree of freedom. Also, the hereditary effect of resident biomass on substrate degradation is studied on periodically long terms. Moreover, biomass concentration is examined in reactor under the influence of various fractional orders. Several numerical simulation results are introduced based on Grünwald-Letnikov to reveal the role of fractional derivatives on the treatment process for conventional UASB reactor using Andrews kinetics. An enhancement in the performance may owe to the ability of FOM to interpret the behavior of biomass accumulation in reactor. Furthermore, model validation can be accomplished through a prediction of the measured results of high-strength wastewater in UASB pilot plant installed at El-Berka Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), Cairo, Egypt. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.