Sludge adaptability during start-up of anaerobic reactor for leachate from garbage power plant

Suitable anaerobic sludge can effectively shorten the start-up time of anaerobic reactors. To reveal the adaptability of different sources of anaerobic sludge to leachate from garbage power plants, the treatment performance of five types of anaerobic sludge on leachate from two different sources was investigated through intermittent cultivation. Illumina Miseq sequencing was used to reveal the main functional variability of different anaerobic sludge from the perspective of sludge community composition. The results showed that for leachate with COD up to 30 000 mg/L, inoculation with anaerobic sludge from a paper mill (ZZC sludge) resulted in a COD removal rate of 72.3% within 36 hours, and the sludge load (COD load of per unit MLVSS) reached 10.2 kg/(kg·d). For the leachate with a COD of 25 000 mg/L, the COD removal rate of ZZC sludge reached 75.8% after 36 hours, and the sludge load reached 10.1 kg/(kg·d). When the COD was 30 000 mg/L, ZZC sludge had better treatment effect on both eastern(DB) and southern(NB) plant leachate, NJG sludge (from agricultural processing plant) had the best treatment effect on DB plant leachate, and YZC sludge (from aquaculture wastewater treatment plant) had the best treatment effect on NB plant leachate. The rapid start-up of anaerobic reactors in two plant areas using ZZC sludge could effectively improve the methane production of anaerobic reactors.