The Evolution of Biomass in a Two-phase Anaerobic Treatment Process During Start-up

R. Solera, L. I. Romero and D. Sales

Abstract
This paper reports the experimentation carried out in a semi-continuous, laboratory- scale, two-reactor system fed with diluted wine vinasses. The principal objective of this research was to observe the variations in auto-fluorescent methanogens and non-methanogenic bacteria at differing rates of HRT and OLR. The experiments were conducted with two different HRTs in the acidogenic phase: 1.7 and 4 days; whereas in the methanogenic phase, HRT was maintained at 4 days. In the acidogenic phase, the numbers of methanogens and non-methanogens decreased considerably when the HRT was 1.7 days. This HRT is short enough to make “wash-out” of slow-growing microorganisms possible and it may also be the minimum retention time bordering on process failure conditions. Phase separation (acidogenesis and methanogenesis) was not achieved in either of the two reactors. A moderate level of methanogenic activity was permitted in the first reactor.

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Keywords
Epifluorescence, methanogenesis, thermophilic anaerobic digestion