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Determination of biomass detachment rate coefficients in anaerobic fluidized‐bed‐GAC reactors
Author(s) -
Nakhla George,
Suidan Makram T.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.10426
Subject(s) - biomass (ecology) , fluidized bed , chemistry , bioreactor , anaerobic exercise , particle size , chromatography , pulp and paper industry , analytical chemistry (journal) , ecology , biology , organic chemistry , physiology , engineering
In this study a simple analytical technique that determines the active biomass in a sample capable of degrading specific substrates anaerobically was developed and used to measure first‐order detachment rate coefficients of acetate and phenol utilizing organisms. Different detachment rate coefficients were measured for the two microbial populations. A general relationship between the detachment rate coefficients and biomass accumulation was developed. The detachment rate coefficient was found to increase sharply after a certain biomass accumulation until it reaches a maximum, after which it decreases continuously with increasing biomass until it levels off at a constant value independent of biomass. Detachment rate coefficients measured in different reactors, operating at different conditions with respect to loading, biological SRT, and attachment media particle size, were in close agreement with each other after being normalized to the shear stress and daily methane production rate per unit biofilm area. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biotechnol Bioeng 80: 660–669, 2002.