Abstract
Treatability of the sanitary young landfill leachate in a pilot-scale anaerobic fluidized bed reactor during reactor startup and steady-state phases was investigated. All runs were carried out at 35°C due to environmental conditions in the mesophilic anaerobic fluidized bed reactor (AFBR) while organic loading rate (OLR) was increased from 2.5 to 37 gCOD/L-day during the 220 days of operation. The AFBR process attained steady-state conditions about on day 80 and a good and stable COD removal were achieved at about 90%. Biogas production in the bed continuously increased during the process. The mean specific biogas production was found 0.52 L biogas/gCODrem while the methane content was about 75%. The attached biomass concentration, measured as volatile solids rapidly increased as containing about 90% of the total biomass concentration. Furthermore, an increase in the suspended solid concentration was found as an evidence of biomass detachment from the media.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to acknowledge the financial support provided by ITU Research and Development Center (Project No: 1947) and the Scientific Research Council of Turkey (İÇTAG-Ç005 (10I008)).