BENCH scale anaerobic fixed bed reactors containing oak, cypress and pine wood block media were operated at 31.1 C with hydraulic retention times as low as 2 days using supernatant from settled swine waste as feedstock. Similar reactors were operated using three types of commercially available plastic media and no media. All reactors had a fixed liquid or void volume of 5 L. The wood block media performed as well as plastic media and showed no visual signs of deterioration after one year of operation. Differences in volatile fatty acid levels and distributions suggested that start-up characteristics of wood block media may be better than those of plastic media.
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Nordstedt et al. (1985) studied this question.