Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 175±178

Short communication

Co-digestion of leachate with septage using a UASB reactor

Chiu-Yue Lin *, Feng-Yuan Chang, Chun-Hao Chang
Graduate Institute of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724, Taiwan, ROC
Received 20 September 1999; received in revised form 15 November 1999; accepted 25 November 1999

Abstract
This study investigated the start-up and treatment eciency in anaerobic co-digestion of land®ll leachate and septage by a UASB
process. A UASB reactor was operated at 35  1°C. Septage and leachate were mixed in the ratios of 3:1, 2:1 and 1:1 on the basis of
chemical oxygen demand (COD) and the mixture ratios of the feeds were changed during the experiment. At hydraulic retention
time of 1.5 days and an organic loading rate of 6.73 kg COD/m3 -day (mixture ratio 1:1), the removal eciencies of total COD,
soluble COD, total solids, volatile solids, total volatile fatty acid, total phosphorus, ammonia nitrogen, carbohydrate and protein
were 42.2%, 58.1%, 45.3%, 68.2%, 73.4%, 44.3%, 47.8%, 53.7% and 44.4%, respectively. Based on values of the organic loading rate
and treatment eciencies, which are comparable to reported values for wastewater or sewage, it was concluded that a UASB reactor
could successfully co-digest leachate and septage. A comparison between the present results and those of a CSTR reactor fed on the
leachate±septage mixture was provided. Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Anaerobic; UASB; Leachate; Septage; Co-digestion

1. Introduction lated investigations have focused primarily on treating

Because of containing high concentrations of am-
monia nitrogen and refractory organics, land®ll leachate
adversely a€ects the biological treatment plants in 230
land®ll sites in Taiwan. Sanitary sewer systems serve
only 3.5% of the population in Taiwan; in the non-sewer
areas, more than 80% of the night soil is treated in septic
tanks that daily produce thousands of tonnes (wet
weight) of septage. Mostly, the septage is inadequately
treated which also causes pollution problems island-
wide. Therefore, using the biological leachate treatment
plants to treat simultaneously the septage has been
suggested. Our previous study showed the feasibility of
co-treating septage and leachate in a completely stirred
tank reactor (CSTR) anaerobic digester (Lin et al.,
1999). An up¯ow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB)
process is a modern anaerobic treatment system that can
have high treatment eciency and a short hydraulic
retention time (HRT). In Taiwan, more than 10 UASB
treatment plants treating leachate are in operation cur-
rently. Using these existed UASB plants to co-treat the
septage and leachate will be proposed. However, the
start-up of a UASB reactor is time-consuming and re-
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +886-4-4519746; fax: 886-4-4515827.
E-mail address: cylin@fcu.edu.tw (C.-Y. Lin).
wastewater. Moreover, the performance of a UASB
process has never been investigated in terms of treating
septage and leachate mixtures.
Therefore, this study was to investigate the start-up
and treatment eciencies of a UASB reactor fed on
septage±leachate mixtures, a moderate-solids organic
waste.
2. Methods
2.1. Reactor and substrate
Experiments were performed in a UASB reactor (in-
terior diameter of 14 cm) having a working volume of
13.5 l, and in a semi-continuous feeding system. The
reactor was operated at 35  1°C. The seed sludge was
obtained from the digested sludge of an anaerobic di-
gestion tank of a pig wastewater treatment plant
(loading rate 1.4 kg COD/m3 -day, solids retention time
two days) and was acclimated with a mixture of septage
and leachate. The septage originated from septic tanks
in Taichung City. The leachate was collected from Tai-
chung City municipal refuse disposal site that was three
years old. Septage (S) and leachate (L) were mixed in
the ratios of 3:1, 2:1, and 1:1 on COD basis. Table 1 lists

0960-8524/00/$ - see front matter Ó 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 9 6 0 - 8 5 2 4 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 6 6 - 2
176 C.-Y. Lin et al. / Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 175±178

Table 1
Substrate characteristics and treatment eciencies
Reactor item UASB CSTRa
c
Day 0±86, Day 87±32, Day 133±195, Day 196±222, Day 223±342 , Steady state,
HRT 10 days, HRT 1.5 days, HRT 1.5 days, HRT 1.5 days, HRT 1.5 days, HRT 5.3 days,
S : Lb ˆ 3:1 S:Lˆ3:1 S:Lˆ2:1 S:Lˆ1:1 S:Lˆ1:1 S:Lˆ1:1
Organic loading rate, 1.21 7.48 6.17 6.80 6.73 1.27
kg COD/m3 -day
Solids loading rate, 0.73 5.14 4.16 4.20 4.20 3.54
kg VS/m3 -day

Substrate characteristicsd
Total COD, mg/l 12050  2044 11218  2113 9264  1544 10195  870 10099  1633 11 556
Soluble COD, mg/l 3863  637 3872  782 2858  279 4586  882 4426  1669 6958
Total solids, mg/l 11597  2627 12068  2044 9790  1640 10164  1656 10196  1526 31 907
Volatile solids, mg/l 7332  1674 7715  1199 6242  1098 6294  926 6306  911 16 075
Alkalinity, mg/l 1616  190 1348  236 1693  191 1849  180 1838  231 2980
Total volatile fatty 665  262 961  143 849  97 907  77 909  85 1208
acid, mg COD/l
Total phosphorus, 57  9 60  9 63  6 57  4 60  10 64
mg/l
NH3 ±N, mg/l 424  52 354  27 326  79 401  54 316  43 442
Carbohydrate, mg/l 52  16 63  3 67  20 64  17 65  5 101
Protein, mg/l 92  12 123  9 119  27 85  10 116  23 81

Removal eciency (%)

Total COD 67.8 51.7 42.9 42.2 42.2 52
Soluble COD 70.1 71.0 65.8 57.6 58.1 68
Total solids 53.3 57.7 49.1 45.1 45.3 15
Volatile solids 72.3 72.2 70.9 67.9 68.2 23
Total volatile fatty 76.1 82.0 75.9 74.4 73.4 37
acid
Total phosphorus 35.9 46.3 42.5 40.2 44.3 67
NH3 ±N 41.9 57.8 45.4 45.1 47.8 42
Carbohydrate 46.0 62.6 47.6 53.0 53.7 78
Protein 39.2 51.7 39.1 42.0 44.4 77
a
Lin et al. (1999).
b
Septage leachate, mixed on a basis of total solids concentration.
c
Steady state.
d
Average …n ˆ 7±14†.

the characteristics of the substrates. No nutrient was
added to the substrate. The hydraulic retention times
(HRT) were 10 and 1.5 days and the experiments were
initiated from 10 days. The shortening of HRT from 10
days to 1.5 days was through 7.5, 5.0 and 3.0 days at the
time interval of three days for each step.
Methods (APHA, 1995) were used to determine the
general water quality. Other experimental and analytical
details were the same as those in our previous study (Lin
and Chen, 1999; Lin et al., 1999). The granule diameter
was measured with an image analyzer system (Scan
Array-2, Galai, Israel).

2.2. Monitoring
The pH value was controlled at 7:2  0:2 by adding
sodium hydroxide or hydrochloric acid. The reactor was
routinely monitored for pH, ORP (oxidation±reduction
potential), COD, alkalinity, gas production and volatile
fatty acids (VFAs), solids, phosphorus, ammonia ni-
trogen, carbohydrate and protein concentrations. Under
steady-state condition, i.e. the condition under which
the above parameter values only slightly varied (less
than 15% variation) during a four-week operation. VFA
and gas compositions were determined by gas chroma-
tography. The analytical procedures of Standard
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 1 presents the reactor operation and treatment
eciency of some water-quality parameters. The re-
moval eciencies of the total COD (TCOD), soluble
COD (SCOD) and total volatile fatty acid (TVFA)
during the changes of HRT and substrate mixture ratio
varied markedly. However, from day 223 (HRT 1.5
days, mixture ratio 1:1) the performance of the reactor
was satisfactory; constant removal eciencies were es-
tablished as well. Table 1 summarizes the treatment
eciencies.
 C.-Y. Lin et al. / Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 175±178 177

Fig. 1. Daily variations of the reactor contents and treatment eciencies: (e) organic loading rate (kg COD/m3 -day); (r) total solids (TS) loading
rate (kg TS/m3 -day); (+) volatile solids (VS) loading rate (kg VS/m3 -day); (h) total COD (TCOD); (n) soluble COD (SCOD); (,) TS; (.) VS; (n)
in¯uent; (m) e‚uent; TVFA, total volatile fatty acid (mg COD/l).

An observation on the data obtained from various
mixture ratios (Table 1) shows that the treatment e-
ciencies of the reactor depended on the mixture com-
ponent. Increasing the fraction of leachate decreased the
TCOD, SCOD, TS, VS, TVFA and ammonia nitrogen
removal eciencies by near 30%. Two possible factors
causing the decrease of removal eciency are suggested.
One is that the land®ll leachate contains various re-
fractory organic components and another is the inhibi-
tion arising from the ammonia concentration in the
leachate. A similar result was also experienced in our
previous experiment that used an anaerobic CSTR di-
gester to co-digest septage and leachate (Lin et al.,
1999). At HRT 1.5 days and a mixture ratio of 1:1, the
reactor reached steady-state condition, when its removal
eciencies of TCOD and SCOD were 42.2% and 58.1%,
respectively. It was found that the COD removal e-
ciency was comparable to the results of a UASB reactor
fed on sewage (van Haandel and Lettinga, 1994). The
reported treatment eciencies of a CSTR reactor that
co-digested the leachate±septage mixture are also in-
cluded in Table 1 for comparison. In the present study
the organic loading rate was higher than that of using a
CSTR reactor (1.27 kg COD/m3 -day, Lin et al., 1999).
178 C.-Y. Lin et al. / Bioresource Technology 73 (2000) 175±178
When the reactor was under steady-state condition
(day 223±day 342; HRT 1.5 days, mixture ratio 1:1) the
e‚uent concentrations of TCOD, SCOD, TS, VS, alka-
linity, TVFA, total phosphorus, ammonia nitrogen,
carbohydrate and protein were 5837, 1854, 5577, 2005,
732, 242, 34, 165, 30 and 64 mg/l, respectively. The ef-
¯uent COD and NH3 ±N concentrations were markedly
higher than Taiwan's discharge standard (COD 200,
NH3 ±N 10 mg/l). Therefore, in this case, further treat-
ment would be necessary. The average ORP value of the
digester liquid was )387 mV, which is favorable to an
anaerobic process (Brito et al., 1997). The biogas pro-
duction rate was 6.7 l/day with 32±52% methane com-
position. The methane conversion ranged from about 73
to 187 l CH4 /kg SCOD. The digester gas contained 39±
58% dinitrogen gas. This high percentage of N2 gas was
considered to relate to anaerobic ammonium oxidation
(van Graaf et al., 1995). A similar range of N2 content was
also experienced during the anaerobic co-digestion of
septage and leachate in our laboratory (Lin et al., 1999).
In a UASB reactor, bed biogranules always function
actively. The average granule diameter of the bed bi-
ogranules was approximately 0.8 mm, i.e. comparable to
cited values for wastewater (van Haandel and Lettinga,
1994; Brito et al., 1997).
4. Conclusions
During the entire experiments, the applied volumetric
loading rate increased from 1.21 to 6.80 kg COD/m3 -day
or from 0.73 to 4.20 kg VS/m3 -day. The organic loading
rate and treatment eciency were comparable to pre-
vious literature for wastewater or sewage treated by a
UASB process (van Haandel and Lettinga, 1994; Brito
et al., 1997). Based on this and a long duration (four
months) of constant methane production and removal
eciencies, we can conclude that the UASB reactor
operated successfully in treating the moderate solids-
content mixture of septage and land®ll leachate. At
HRT 1.5 days and an organic loading rate of 6.73 kg
COD/m3 -day, the removal eciencies of total COD,
soluble COD, total solids, volatile solids, total volatile
fatty acid, total phosphorus, ammonia nitrogen, carbo-
hydrate and protein were 42.2%, 58.1%, 45.3%, 68.2%,
73.4%, 44.3%, 47.8%, 53.7% and 44.4%, respectively. An
increase in the septage fraction increased treatment
eciency.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the National Science
Council of the Republic of China for ®nancially sup-
porting this paper under Contract No. NSC 86-2211-
E035-0030. Part of this paper was presented at the II
International Symposium on Anaerobic Digestion of
Solid Waste, 15±18 June 1999, in Barcelona, Spain.
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