IBR Technology

Originally developed for Utah dairy farmers, the system is designed to be both low-cost and easy to operate. ​Today, the IBR system has been successfully used to treat industrial food manufacturing waste and municipal organic wastes.   

Key Properties of the IBR technology:

• Can accept solids as high as 25% 
  • Typically 8% to 12%
• Produces and maintains a dense sludge bed consisting of bacteria-balanced consortia
• Hydraulic retention time of 3 to 7 days
• Acts as a clarifier, allowing inorganic solids to be purged without impact on the biological system or system shut-down
• Operates at mesophilic or thermophilic temperatures
• Can be completely cleaned and restarted at full production in less than 24 hours
• Very high gas production
• Very low parasitic load (1/2 hp motor)
• Passively mixed system
• Demonstrated destruction of pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and herbicides

• Can be shutdown for months and restarted within minutes
• Can be operated to produce hydrogen
• Modular design allows the IBR system to be simply and inexpensively expanded as community needs increase.​

The UASB reactor creates a zone of highly concentrated bacteria that can biologically break down liquid organic material in hours vs. weeks.  The challenge of using UASB systems to process municipal organic waste is that the UASB cannot process solid materials. The IBR design addresses this challenge while retaining the operational advantages of the UASB reactor.

The innovative, field proven, Induced Bed Reactor (IBR) digester uses the Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) platform (see below) while being able to process high solids organic materials.