Temperature dependency of granule characteristics and kinetic behavior in UASB reactors

When an inhibitory substrate, phenol, was treated under mesophilic conditions (25, 30, 35, and 40 °C), the upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactors at 30 °C resulted in the greatest amount of biomass and the largest granule size, while the UASB reactors at 25 °C resulted in the smallest granule size and the greatest amount of wash‐out of sludge. The granule size tended to be negatively correlated with the amount of wash‐out of sludge. With an increase in temperature, the kinetic constant k for anaerobic phenol degradation increased and the half saturation constant (Ks) decreased. The mass fraction of methanogens (f) increased with increasing operational temperature in the UASB reactors and the activation energy (Ea) for acetate methanogenesis was larger than that for phenol acidogenesis in the batch reactors, indicating that the operational temperature imposes a more influential effect on methanogens than on acidogens. From the results of the activity of acidogens and methanogens (expressed in specific COD utilization rate), the rate‐limiting step is phenol acidogenesis.