An expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor inoculated with anaerobic granular sludge was started up with its COD removal performance, self-balancing of pH, biogas production rate and characteristics of the granular sludge during the start-up period being investigated. The results indicated that the EGSB reactor can be started up successfully in 27 d by increasing the organic loading rate rapidly. The removal efficiency of COD was maintained above 93% with influent COD concentration of 25 000 mg/L and OLR of 37.94 kgCOD/(m 3 ·d). The EGSB reactor with good pH self-balancing could be fed with fresh leachate of low pH value (4 5). The biogas production rate was closely related with OLR and COD reduction. Every gram of COD fed (consumed) to the reactor produced 0.34 L STP (0.36 L STP ) biogas with 0.21 L STP (0.23 L STP ) methane. Thus, 65% 70% of the produced biogas was methane. Sixty one percentage of COD fed to the reactor was converted to methane, another 33% was converted to biomass by metabolism, and the other 6% was left in the liquid phase. The specific methanogenic activity (SMA) of the granular sludge had increased by 92% after 27 d dynamic incubation. The granular sludge in the reactor had good settlement performance with majority diameter of 1 2 mm.
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