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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Continuously-stirred Anaerobic Digester to Convert Organic Wastes into Biogas: System Setup and Basic Operation
Published on: July 13, 2012
Promotion of polyhydroxyalkanoates-producing granular sludge formation by lactic acid using anaerobic dynamic feeding
Jiaxing Xi1, Wenjie Fang2, Huihui Zhang3
1State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China; Chongqing Key Laboratory of Agricultural Resources and Environment, College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
Abstract:
To promote the formation of granular sludge with high polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) synthesis ability, an anaerobic dynamic feeding process (AnDF) was proposed. This process combines the feast-famine mode with an anaerobic plug flow feeding process and involving variations in cycle length and settling time. The effects of lactic acid (LA) content (0 %, 20 %, and 40 % COD) on sludge granulation and PHAs production were investigated using three AnDF reactors (R1, R2, and R3). The results showed that the AnDF process feeding with LA not only effectively promoted sludge granulation but also improved its PHAs synthesis ability. The granules were quickly observed in R3 after 50 days of cultivation, with an average diameter of 0.69 mm. The maximum PHAs content reached 47.0 wt% in R3, representing a 30.09 % increase compared to R1. Additionally, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS)-producing bacteria observed in granular sludge may be the prime drivers of the formation of PHAs-producing granular sludge (PHAGS), which was defined as granular sludge with an average particle size larger than 0.30 mm and PHAs content above 40 % cell dry weight (CDW) of sludge samples.
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