Application of immobilized and granular dried anaerobic biomass for stabilizing and increasing anaerobic bio-systems tolerance for high organic loads and phenol shocks

Nedal Massalha; Asher Brenner; Chaim Sheindorf; Isam Sabbah

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2015.08.060

Application of immobilized and granular dried anaerobic biomass for stabilizing and increasing anaerobic bio-systems tolerance for high organic loads and phenol shocks

Bioresour Technol. 2015 Dec:197:106-12. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.08.060. Epub 2015 Aug 20.

Authors

Nedal Massalha¹, Asher Brenner², Chaim Sheindorf³, Isam Sabbah⁴

Affiliations

¹ Unit of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel; The Galilee Society Institute of Applied Research, Shefa-Amr, Israel.
² Unit of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), Beer-Sheva, Israel.
³ Chemical Engineering Department, Shenkar Engineering College, Ramat-Gan, Israel.
⁴ The Galilee Society Institute of Applied Research, Shefa-Amr, Israel; Prof. Ephraim Katzir Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Braude College, Karmiel, Israel. Electronic address: isabbah@gal-soc.org.

PMID: 26318929
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2015.08.060

Abstract

This study focuses on the stability and tolerance of continuous-flow bioreactors inoculated with anaerobic methanogens in three different configurations: (R1) dried granular biomass immobilized in PAC-enriched hydrophilic polyurethane foam, (R2) dried granular biomass, and (R3) wet granular biomass. These systems were tested under two different organic loading rates (OLR) of 6.25 and 10.94 (gCOD/(Lreactor∗d)), using a glucose-based synthetic mixture. The effect of an instantaneous shock load of phenol (5g/L for three days), and of phenol inclusion in the feed (0.5g/L) were also tested. At the lower OLR, all reactors performed similarly, however, increasing the OLR lead to a significant biomass washout and failure of R3. Biomass in R1 was more tolerant to phenol shock load than R2, though activity was recovered in both systems after about one month. PAC provided protection and shortened the adaptation time for 0.5g/L phenol that continuously was fed.

Keywords: Activated carbon; Anaerobic treatment; Immobilized biomass; Phenol; Polyurethane foam.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
Biomass*
Bioreactors / microbiology*
Cells, Immobilized / drug effects*
Cells, Immobilized / metabolism*
Euryarchaeota
Phenol / pharmacology*
Polyurethanes

Substances

Polyurethanes
Phenol
polyurethane foam