Criteria to assess the operation of anaerobic purification installations for saccharide-containing waste water Part 2: Special consideration of the methane stage

Optimization of the anaerobic degradation processiIn sugar factory anaerobic installations presupposes the well-coordinated separation of the acidification stage (including hydrolysis) and the methane stage, resulting in the optimal operating points for both degradation stages. In practice, the process stages acidification and methanogenesis can never be totally separated. Operating conditions may give rise to a situation in which methane is already being generated in the acidification stage or in which acidification is incomplete and unacidified compounds introduced into the methane stage must be acidified in that phase. The optimal point of the acidification stage was discussed in the first part of this paper (Zuckerind. 120 (1995) 400- 406). This second part demonstrates the possibilities, by way of determining the contents of specific coenzymes in the undifferentiated biomass of the methane stage, of describing the composition of acidifying and methanizing bacteria of this mixed population. This made it possible to determine the qualities of inoculation mud and to observe the adaptation processes of the inoculation mud employed in anaerobic reactors. Analyses of the coenzyme F420 content in the biomass of anaerobic muds from sugar factory waste water reactors showed, after sufficient adaptation time, a coenzyme F420 content of 213-258 nmol/g organic dry substance.