Impact of surfactant addition on anaerobic bioreactor landfill performance

Abstract

Abstract. Surfactants have been used as surface-acting agents that are added to increase the effect of the plant protection. Other applications include in the clean-up of petroleum product spills, textile industry, metal processing industry, etc. The disposal of surfactant liquid wastes into landfills will reduce the burden of additional treatment and provide additional moisture content for bioreactor landfills. A previous study showed that the performance of an anaerobic bioreactor landfill in terms of biological activity has increased with the addition of anionic but not cationic surfactants. A later study showed that anionic surfactant levels greater than 500 mg L -1 actually posed inhibitory effect to the system performance. In order to shed light on the surfactant impact, we loaded four (including one control) batch reactors of mesophilic anaerobic bioreactor landfill with surfactant concentrations at 0 mg L -1 , 500 mg L -1 , 1,000 mgL -1 , and 1,500 mg L -1 , respectively. Biogas production and lignin degradation measured in this study were used as indicators to evaluate the surfactant effects on the bioreactor performance. Although 1,500 mg L -1 surfactant showed some inhibition, the performance of all the other bioreactors was found satisfactory. Moreover, surfactants addition was found to be associated with the improvement in lignin degradation. It is our anticipation that results of this study in conjunction with the findings from our previous research will help comprehend the effects of surfactant addition on the overall performance of the bioreactor landfill.