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SEAD
SEAD process (Shear Enhanced Anaerobic Digestion)
The SEAD Process is a high rate, short HRT, completely-mixed anaerobic digestion process that is particularly suited for the digestion of sludge and other biodegradable solid wastes and slurries.
The SEAD reactor typically operates in a once-through mode when treating sludge or slurry with total solids content of 4 percent weight or greater.
A large contact area between the liquid phase and the bacteria is created by the simultaneous disintegration of sludge into small flocs.
The SEAD reactor is a tall reactor, which is mixed by circulating a large flow of mixed liquor from the bottom of the reactor via one or more high-shear nozzles in the top of the vessel downward into one or more draft tubes.
The high-shear nozzle has several important functions:
- It breaks up and disperses biomass and substrate solids
- It creates intimate contact between substrate and biomass
- It accelerates mass transfer
- It induces reactor circulation that is about an order of magnitude greater than the external circulation flow