Cellulolytic activity in leachate during leach-bed anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste

The degradation of municipal solid waste (MSW) under mesophilic conditions can be enhanced by exchanging leachate between fresh waste and stabilised waste. The optimum point in time when leachate from an anaerobically digesting waste bed can be used to initiate degradation of another waste bed might...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Bioresource technology 2001-12, Vol.80 (3), p.205-210
Main Authors: Lai, Takwai E., Nopharatana, Annop, Pullammanappallil, Pratap C., Clarke, William P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anaerobic digestion
Biodegradation, Environmental
Biological and medical sciences
Biological treatment of sewage sludges and wastes
Biomethanogenesis
Biotechnology
Cellulose - analysis
Cellulose - metabolism
Cellulose-azure assay
Environment and pollution
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
Hydrolytic activity
Industrial applications and implications. Economical aspects
Leach-bed
Methane - chemistry
Municipal solid waste
Oxygen - metabolism
Refuse Disposal - methods
Time Factors
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Summary:The degradation of municipal solid waste (MSW) under mesophilic conditions can be enhanced by exchanging leachate between fresh waste and stabilised waste. The optimum point in time when leachate from an anaerobically digesting waste bed can be used to initiate degradation of another waste bed might occur when the leachate of the digesting waste bed is highly active with cellulolytic and methanogenic bacteria. In this study, the cellulolytic activity of the leachate was measured using the cellulose-azure assay. As products of hydrolysis are soluble compounds, the rate of generation of these compounds was estimated based on a soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) balance around the fresh waste bed. It was found that once the readily soluble material present in MSW was washed out there was very little generation of SCOD without the production of methane, indicating that flushing leachate from a stabilised waste bed resulted in a balanced inoculation of the fresh waste bed. With the onset of sustained methanogenesis, the rate of SCOD generation equalled the SCOD released from the digester as methane. The experimental findings also showed that cellulolytic activities of the leachate samples closely followed the trend of SCOD generation.
ISSN:0960-8524
1873-2976
DOI:10.1016/S0960-8524(01)00088-8