title: Methane yield as a monitoring parameter for the start-up of anaerobic fixed film reactors.
abstract: This paper describes the variation of the methane yield during the start-up period of an anaerobic fluidized bed reactor. After a lag phase, with acclimatized sludge, the methane yield increased with time during biofilm development up to the theoretical steady yield value, reported to be around 0.351 CH4/g CODdeg. The establishment of the biofilm required a high consumption of organic material through the microbial synthesis (anabolism), thereby reducing the proportion of substrate converted to methane. As a result, this yield could be an indirect metabolic parameter for evaluating a start-up operation. It could provide vital information about bacterial fixation processes and is easy to be applied to any biofilm reactor, such as anaerobic filters, where biomass sampling is impracticable. Monitoring this parameter could also give useful dynamic information about the different steps of colonization and biomass attachment, which could be used to improve the start-up performance.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique, Narbonne, France.
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Michaud
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bernet
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Buffière
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roustan
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Moletta
mesh_terms: D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic; D018441:Biofilms; D019149:Bioreactors; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D008697:Methane / Q000032:analysis*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000378:metabolism; D012722:Sewage / Q000382:microbiology; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid
chemical_list: D009930:Organic Chemicals; D012722:Sewage; D008697:Methane