Novel start-up process for the efficient degradation of high COD wastewater with up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket...

To avoid wastage of water resources and operating cost increases caused by the traditional start-up process of large amounts of dilution influent chemical oxygen demand (COD), a novel start-up process (NSP) was developed and verified with water hyacinth juice (WHJ) on an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) and modified internal circulation (MIC) reactor. Results show that UASB and MIC reactors were started successfully and that the MIC reactor exhibited a superior performance. The NSP time of the MIC reactor (46 days) was less than that of the UASB reactor (52 days), although the start-up organic loading rate (OLR) of the MIC reactor was higher than that of the UASB reactor. Interestingly, high-throughput sequencing analysis indicated that the reactor configuration significantly impacted the microbial diversity, however, the UASB and MIC reactors had similar predominant methanogens: Methanosaeta and Methanosarcina. Therefore, acetoclastic methanogenesis is the primary pathway of methane formation during WHJ treatment.