Treatability Assessments: From Bench to Field-Scale Testing

Batch and continuous culture reactors are used widely for conducting treatability assessments of industrial wastewaters. Batch tests have the advantage of producing results on a rather rapid basis – typically hours or a few days. The major disadvantage of batch tests is that they represent a short-term response of a seed culture to the test wastewater and can be affected by toxicity, lack of acclimation, or initial dilution effects. Continuous laboratory-scale reactor tests provide more realistic measures of treatability but require operation for sufficient lengths of time to allow steady-state conditions to be approached. Continuously operated reactors simulate fullscale operation more closely than batch tests. Laboratory-scale pilot tests provide a realistic simulation of anticipated full-scale operating conditions and provide a reliable alternative to costly field-scale pilot tests. The objective of this paper is to show how laboratory-scale pilot tests can be used to avoid costly field-scale pilot testing.