Influence of sugar content of wastewater on the microbial characteristics of granular sludge developed at 20°C in the anaerobic granular sludge bed reactor

Abstract

The influence of the sugar content of wastewater on changes in the characteristics of the retained sludge was investigated by using two lab-scale granular sludge bed reactors at 20°C. Both reactors were inoculated with granular sludge grown at 20°C and were fed with synthetic wastewater containing sucrose and volatile fatty acids (VFAs). On day 70, the sucrose content of the wastewater was changed to 90% (based on wastewater COD value) for the first reactor and 0% (VFA 90%) for the second. After this change in feed composition, the COD removal efficiency became about 91% for the sucrose-fed reactor and 95% for the VFA-fed reactor. The growth yield (Yg) of the sucrose-fed sludge increased more than that of the VFA-fed sludge. Consequently, deterioration of the settleability of the sucrose-fed sludge was observed. The sucrose-degrading activity of the retained sludge obtained from the sucrose-fed reactor increased significantly from 3.7 g COD g VSS− 1 day− 1 on day 62 to 36.8 g COD g VSS− 1 day− 1 on day 230, in accordance with the predominant growth of sugar-degrading bacteria – namely, Lactococcus, Clostridium and Chloroflexi – in the retained sludge. The excessive growth of these sugar-degrading bacteria in the retained sludge caused unstable process performance in the sucrose-fed reactor at 20°C.