A series of batch Biochemical Methane Potential(BMP) tests and two parallel Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Bed(UASB) processes were conducted to investigate the influence of glucose supplement en the degradation of catechol. The substrate inhibition of catechol caused by thermal shock, restart or other operating problems was also studied. The results showed that the glucose supplement could accelerate the degradation rate of catechol, and the effect was more pronounced in the higher concentration range. The mechanism so-called cosubstrate utilization and the anaerobic metabolic pathway of catechol were proposed to explain these symptoms. Data of both batch tests and UASB processes indicated that high concentration of catechol did inhibit the bioactivity of anaerobic microbes. Operation strategy of effluent recirculation could maintain appropriate in-tank concentration to promote the high bioactivity in the reactors. The critical concentration of the highest degradation rate was estimated with a modified Haldane equation derived from the batch BMP data. Low temperature could also contribute inhibition to the microbes, the temperature factor θ with a value of 1.093 estimated from the batch data indicated that anaerobic microbes were very sensitive to the temperature change. The low bioactivity and catechol accumulation were observed during the restart period. It was suggested that lower volumetric loading should be applied in order to resume the bioactivity and to restart the reactor.
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Hwang et al. (1991) studied this question.