Bioresource Technology 260 (2018) 213–220

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Bioresource Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech

Performance of pilot scale anaerobic biofilm digester (ABD) for the T

treatment of leachate from a municipal waste transfer station
⁎
Y. Arija, S. Fatihaha, , A.R. Rakmib
a
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia
b
Envirosource Sdn Bhd, No. 13A, Jalan Jernang Jaya 1, Taman Jernang Jaya, 43650 Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The anaerobic treatment of leachate from a municipal waste transfer station in Malaysia was tested using a pilot
Anaerobic biofilm digester scale anaerobic biofilm digester system that was operated under HRT sequence of 30-day, 25-day, 20-day and
Leachate 10-day for 163 days under mesophilic conditions. Despite the leachate’s complex characteristics, the system
Organic pollutants showed great performance given its maximum COD, BOD5 and total phosphorus removal efficiencies of
Biogas
98 ± 1%, 99 ± 1% and 92 ± 9% respectively. The system was stable throughout its operation and showed
optimal average values for the monitored parameters such as pH (7.53 ± 0.14), total VFA (79 ± 66 mg HOAc/
L), alkalinity (10,919 ± 1556 mg CaCO3/L) and a non-toxic value for accumulated ammonia (960 ± 106 mg
NH3-N/L). Measurement of the average daily biogas production yielded a value of 25 ± 1 m3/day throughout
the system’s operation with a composition of 57 ± 12% methane and 26 ± 6% carbon dioxide.

1. Introduction
Due to their highly varying components and substances, leachates
excreted from municipal solid waste are among the most complicated
wastewaters to treat (Chen et al., 2008; Begum et al., 2018; Lim et al.,
2012; Luo et al., 2014). The technology used for leachate treatment
depends on the characteristics of leachates, which are generally clas-
sified as young, medium and old leachates based on the age of the waste
disposal sites (Abbas et al., 2009; Alvarez-Vazquez et al., 2004; Bhalla
et al., 2012). Biological treatments, particularly aerobic and anaerobic
treatments, display better performance when treating young leachates
due to their high organic compounds which, if treated effectively, can
produce profitable green by-products of biogas and bio-fertilizers (Luo
et al., 2014). Meanwhile, adsorption and ion exchange systems are
more effective in treating old or matured leachates that contain more
non-biodegradable compounds, such as humic acids and heavy-metal
impurities (Fettig, 1999). Although Nano filtration and reverse osmosis
are the most efficient technologies for treating all types of leachates
(Abbas et al., 2009), due to their high costs, these systems are not
primary options for high-strength wastewater treatment, particularly in
developing countries.
In Malaysia, leachate from municipal solid waste is generated at
several types of waste disposal sites such as landfills, sanitary landfills,
transfer stations and open dumping sites. Integrated treatment systems
comprising of leachate lagoons and phytoremediation for polishing
used in sanitary landfills are costly and use up a large area of land
whilst open dumping sites only contain unattended leachate lagoons,
which are barely visible due to the heaps of waste covering their sur-
faces (Fatihah et al., 2010). For transfer stations that are used as
storehouses that receive waste prior to its transport to landfills (EPA,
2009), aerobic treatment is employed as the main technology for
treatment of leachate. However, the use of aerobic systems does not
rank well in terms of sustainability due to the high levels of energy
required for aeration, exhausting the operation and management (O&
M) capital which eventually steered to financial losses (Keating et al.,
2016).
Despite an old perception that an anaerobic digester shows slow
reaction rates and process variability, the use of an anaerobic digester
to treat leachate is the best option because these two constraints of
conventional anaerobic process have been overcome by the use of high-
rate anaerobic digesters that engage cell immobilization techniques
such as granules and biofilms (Zhou et al., 2007; Chen et al., 2008; Arij
et al., 2017). The most commonly applied high-rate anaerobic systems
by the industry are Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB), but un-
fortunately these systems have major issue with sludge retention (Lim
and Kim, 2014; Ahmad, 2016). The system has the disadvantages for
treating a complex wastewater comprising floating and colloidal par-
ticles such as fat and protein. This is because these substances thwart
the activity of methanogens by reducing the transfer properties of the
mass and the biogas produced is absorbed on the sludge’s surface. This

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: fati@ukm.edu.my (S. Fatihah).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2018.03.131
Received 9 February 2018; Received in revised form 27 March 2018; Accepted 29 March 2018
Available online 30 March 2018
0960-8524/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Y. Arij et al.
granular sludge de-granulates into flocs and eventually the micro-
organisms are washed out of the reactor (di-Biase, 2016).
Since leachate, especially from transfer station and young-age
landfill, contains high concentrations of colloidal particles like fat from
food waste, an anaerobic biofilm digester is considered in view of the
fact that it is a more stable growth system of its operation compared to
granular technology as it improves the contact between microorgan-
isms and substrate (Fernandez et al., 2008). Biomass attached to biofilm
carriers can circulate freely within the digester and are retained by
screens at the outlets and inlets (Igarashi et al., 1999), thus avoiding the
washout of microbes, which is a common problem of most conventional
anaerobic systems.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Description of case study
There are five municipal waste transfer stations throughout
Malaysia, among which Taman Beringin Transfer Station, Kuala
Lumpur (TSKL), has the highest capacity, which is 1700 tonnes/day
(NSWMD, 2017). When this research project began, TSKL was managed
by Alam Flora Sdn. Bhd., which is an established private solid waste
management company in Malaysia. The company simply described the
main existing technology used for leachate treatment inside TSKL as
aerobic treatment. Due to the economic downturn, the use of aerobic
technology for primary leachate treatment exhausted the operation and
management (O&M) capital of TSKL, which eventually led to a colla-
borative project between Alam Flora and the National University of
Malaysia (UKM) for the treatment of leachate using a pilot scale
anaerobic biofilm digester (ABD) system.
This choice was made because compared with aerobic system, much
less O&M capital is needed for anaerobic treatment, and the re-use of
green by-products such as biogas for renewable energy and digestates
as bio-fertilizers after further treatment via composting could be
sources of side-incomes if managed properly. The supplied leachate was
taken from the leachate storage tanks in TSKL which had already been
filtered for impurities (plastic, glasses, etc), before it was ready for
primary treatment process. The leachate was supplied multiple times
and every time new supply was sent to UKM, the leachate would be
characterized for the project’s record.
2.2. Pilot scale ABD system
The pilot scale ABD system consisted of an ABD with a 5.95-m3
working volume and a biogas bio-scrubber as shown in Fig. 1. This
system was built in an open environment, with full exposure to Ma-
laysia’s hot and humid weather throughout the year. As presented in
Fig. 1, the ABD was divided into two parts; the digester and the clarifier
which are denoted in this paper as ABD-A and ABD-B respectively; with
only a 1-foot opening interconnecting both parts. ABD was divided into
two parts to prevent the newly fed leachate mixed up with the dis-
charged effluent, which could make the monitoring process hard to be
performed if it was. For biofilm attachment, the ABD was filled with
10,000 units of 3-dimensional High Density Polyethylene (3-D HDPE)
media with 3.6-cm diameter and 2-cm thickness. The inlets and outlets
of the ABD were installed with stainless steel sieves with opening dia-
meter of 1.5 cm, to ensure that the plastic media remained inside the
digester. The main function of the biogas bio-scrubber is to clean-up the
produced biogas before use. This paper will only discuss the ABD part
and will not study the biogas bio-scrubber.
2.3. Operation and monitoring of the ABD
The start-up operation of the ABD system was executed for a month
with feeding rates of 30 L/day for the first week and 60 L/day after-
wards without pH adjustment to enable the biomass to acclimatize to
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Bioresource Technology 260 (2018) 213–220
the leachate’s complex characteristics as the feed rate was increased
(Arij et al., 2017). After successful start-up, the ABD system was oper-
ated under a sequence of decreasing HRTs of 30-day, 25-day, 20-day
and 10-day for 163 days. The operational conditions for each HRT were
shown in Table 1. To establish normal steady-state conditions, the ABD
was operated for two or three cycles except for 25-day HRT because of
the damaged pump and leakage in piping system which caused a halt in
operation for almost a month. The ABD continued operating afterwards
with 20-day and 10-day HRTs for 40 days and 30 days respectively.
Throughout operation, the leachate was fed daily into the ABD at
varying HRTs by adjusting the flow rates of the feed. The COD con-
centration was kept almost constant (35,000 to 41,000 mg/L). There-
fore as the HRT was decreased, the OLR increased.
Sampling was performed for both ABD-A and ABD-B, as shown in
Fig. 1 (sampling point A and sampling point B) to measure several
parameters for monitoring purposes including the pH, temperature,
total volatile fatty acids (tVFAs), alkalinity, oxygen reduction potential
(ORP), suspended solids (SS) and ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N). To assess
the organic pollutant removal efficiency (chemical oxygen demand
(COD), 5-day biological oxygen demand (BOD5) and total phosphorus),
the effluent from ABD-B, henceforth denoted the ABD effluent, was
used to check the digester’s performance throughout its operation. The
collected effluents were first stirred to achieve homogeneity and then
sampled into an HDPE bottle. The samples were stored following EPA
guidelines (EPA, 2007) until removed for testing. To sample the biogas,
its composition and volume were measured in situ using a portable
biogas analyser and a mounted thermal-mass flow metre, respectively.
2.4. Analytical methods
A few methodologies were used for the sample analyses. The pH,
temperature and ORP were measured using test probes and the alkali-
nity, BOD5, SS and NH3-N were measured in accordance with the
Standard Method for the Examination of Water and Wastewater (APHA,
2005). For assessment of tVFAs, total phosphorus, and elements, the
samples were first filtered using 0.45-µm cellulose nitrate filter paper
before being tested using the esterification method (HACH, Method
8196, DR 6000 spectrophotometer) acid persulfate digestion method
(HACH, Method 8190, Test & Tube Vials) and quantitative analysis of
inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS), respectively.
While for total COD (tCOD) and soluble COD (noted as COD), the re-
actor digestion method (HACH, COD High Range, DR 6000 spectro-
photometer) was used on the raw samples and filtered samples re-
spectively. All the laboratory analyses were undertaken at room
temperature of 25 ± 2 °C and were performed in duplicate which re-
sult values were presented in the basic statistical evaluation of average
and standard deviation.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Characteristics of TSKL’s leachate
Throughout the operation, the leachate from TSKL was character-
ized and the values for most of the measured parameters are shown in
Table 2. Most of the parameter values agree with the characteristics of
young leachates obtained in previous research as shown in Table 3. The
TSKL’s leachate was especially high in organic contents with tVFAs
value of 10,049 ± 1306 mg HOAc/L, making its pH consistently in low
value, 4.28 ± 0.19, all through the operation. It also showed high COD
and BOD5 with values of 38,204 ± 2796 and 27,816 ± 5314 respec-
tively. Due to this abundant organic compounds, the BOD5/COD and
VSS/TSS ratios presented in Table 2 indicate that the TSKL’s leachate
can be treated via the anaerobic digestion process because waste waters
with BOD5/COD ratios of at least 0.5 can be easily treated by biological
means (Bala et al., 2014) and those with VSS/TSS ratios ranging from
0.8 to 0.9 can be successfully treated via anaerobic digestion (Henze
Y. Arij et al. Bioresource Technology 260 (2018) 213–220

Fig. 1. Schematic drawing of the complete pilot scale anaerobic biofilm digester system.

Table 1 Table 3
Description of the operational conditions, based on HRT. Leachate classification versus landfill age as described by Abbas et al. (2009)
and Bhalla et al. (2012)*.
Phase HRT Cycle no./ D-n Q OLR
(days) Operating days (based on sampling (L/day) (g COD/L/day) Young Medium Old
days)
Age (year) <1 1–5 >5
1 30 2 / 60 Day-0 till Day-60 198 1.27 ± 0.12 pH < 6.5 6.5–7.5 > 7.5
2 25 1 / 30 Day-61 till Day-91 238 1.62 ± 0.19 COD (mg/L) > 15,000 3000–15,000 < 3000
3 20 2 / 40 Day-92 till Day-132 298 1.80 ± 0.14 BOD5/COD 0.5–1.0 0.1–0.5 < 0.1
4 10 3 / 30 Day-133 till Day- 595 3.58 ± 1.39 NH3-N (mg/L) < 400 400 > 400
163 Heavy metals >2 <2 <2
(mg/L)
Note: Hydraulic retention time (HRT); influent flow rate (Q); organic loading Organic 80% VFA(9000–25,000 mg 5–30% HA + FA
rate (OLR). compound tVFA/L)* VFA + HA+FA

Notes: VFA: volatile fatty acid; HA: humic acid; FA: fulvic acid.
Table 2
Characteristics of the leachate from TSKL, Malaysia.
and Comeau, 2008).
No. Parameter Value
In addition, the optimal nutrient ratio (carbon, nitrogen and phos-
(Avg ± SD)
phorus) for anaerobic digestion process is BOD:N:P = 200:5:1 (Wang,
1 pH 4.28 ± 0.19 2017) whereas the BOD:N:P ratio for the TSKL’s leachate is 54:1:1. A
2 Oxygen reduction potential; ORP (mV) −16 ± 88 lower nitrogen concentration in leachate means that nitrogen is not
3 Total suspended solid; TSS (mg/L) 8306 ± 5641 limiting in the system. However, since nitrogen is not biodegraded in
4 Volatile suspended solid; VSS (mg/L) 7154 ± 4913
5 Chemical oxygen demand; COD (mg/L) 38,204 ± 2796
anaerobic system, the ammonia concentration need to be monitored
6 Biological oxygen demand; BOD5 (mg/L) 27,816 ± 5314 during the operation so that the accumulation doesn’t exceed the
7 Ammonia-nitrogen (mg NH3-N/L) 446 ± 62 threshold toxicity value (3000 mg/L and above) (Drosg, 2013; Yenigün
8 Total Kjeldahl nitrogen; TKN (mg NH3-N /L) 504 ± 71 and Demirel, 2013).
9 Nitrate-nitrogen (mg NO3-N/L) 46 ± 21‘
10 Total phosphorus (mg PO43-/L) 671 ± 183
11 Total volatile fatty acid; tVFA (mg HOAc/L) 10,049 ± 1306
3.2. Monitored parameters of the ABD under operation
12 Heavy metals (mg/L)
Cadmium (Cd) 0.01 ± 0.02
Chromium (Cr) 0.15 ± 0.04 As shown in Table 1, the OLR values which depended on the HRT
Arsenic (As) 0.09 ± 0.02 and the concentration of the TSKL’s leachate supplied during the op-
Copper (Cu) 0.01 eration, steadily increased as HRT was decreased from 30-day HRT till
Manganese (Mn) 1.94 ± 0.38
Nickel (Ni) 0.14 ± 0.02
20-day HRT. When 10-day HRT approached, the OLR almost doubled in
Zinc (Zn) 1.67 ± 0.78 value due to the inconsistent concentration of the leachate as demon-
Iron (Fe) 25 ± 19 strated by its COD value and high standard deviation (refer to Table 2).
Barium (Ba) 0.04 ± 0.05 Figs. 2 and 3 show the variations in the pH, temperature, ORP, tVFAs
13 VSS/TSS ratio 0.86
and alkalinity of the ABD during operation under decreased HRTs.
14 BOD5/COD ratio 0.74
Despite fluctuations in weather, the digester still operated in a meso-
Note: The average (Avg) and standard deviation (SD) values of the parameters philic condition at temperatures ranging from approximately 28 °C to
were derived from the test results of the leachate characterization performed 45 °C (Fig. 2(a)). Both sides of the digester, ABD-A and ABD-B, had
throughout ABD operation similar pH values within the optimal range of 7.0 to 7.8 (Drosg, 2013).
Because the alkalinity value for ABD-A was high, it could accommodate
high VFA contents of leachate without any major problem. In this study,

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Y. Arij et al.
Fig. 2. (a) pH, temperature and (b) oxygen reduction potential (ORP) values;
for both sides of the digester (ABD-A and ABD-B) throughout its operation.
the alkalinity for ABD-A ranged from 12,000 to 18,500 mg CaCO3/L,
and for ABD-B, ranged from 6000 to 14,000 mg CaCO3/L. These values
are very high compared with the range of 2000 to 4000 mg CaCO3/L for
the general anaerobic digestion process (APHA, 2005) but seem to be
normal for high rate anaerobic digestion as reported by previous re-
search (Bergland et al., 2015; Lim et al., 2012).
The ORP has been proven to be a useful parameter for monitoring
anaerobic digesters (Lee, 2008; Xu et al., 2014; Yin et al., 2016) because
it measures the net outcome of intracellular metabolism within an
aqueous environment (Liu et al., 2013). As described by Yin et al.
(2016), the optimal ORP value for acidogenic fermentation is in the
range of −100 mV to −200 mV. For fully anaerobic conditions, the
optimal ORP level at the methanogenic stage varies from −250 mV to
−400 mV (Duangmanee, 2009; Yin et al., 2016; Wang, 2017). As
shown in Fig. 2(b), the ORP values for both sides of the ABD showed
similar steady patterns of −228 ± 8 mV during the 30-day HRT.
However, during HRTs of 25-day and below, the ORP values for
both sides diverged into two. As demonstrated by the results, the ABD-A
slowly reached a complete methanogenic phase with the ORP values
declining to −350 mV which reflects a condition that favours the op-
timal growth of strict anaerobes as proven by previous researches
(Wang et al., 2012; Drosg, 2013). With ABD-A physically proven to be
in the state of methanogenesis, the measured parameters strongly in-
dicate that ABD-B did serve its purpose as a clarifier. For most of the
operating days, the tVFA concentrations in ABD-B were similar to those
in ABD-A, with most values below 100 mg HOAc/L (see Fig. 3(a)) and
its alkalinity had a constant value of 6000 mg CaCO3/L (see Fig. 3(b))
with no decreasing phase. This finding is even supported by the mea-
sured SS on both sides as depicted in Fig. 4 (a) and (b) which showed
that the percentages of solids (Fig. 4(c)) in ABD-A and ABD-B were
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Bioresource Technology 260 (2018) 213–220
Fig. 3. (a) Total volatile fatty acids (tVFAs) and (b) alkalinity values; for both
sides of the digester (ABD-A and ABD-B) throughout its operation.
approximately 80% and 20%, respectively.
The sudden increase in SS in ABD-B during the early days of the 20-
day and 10-day HRTs (refer to Fig. 4(b)) was only due to the fat-based
foam that formed for several days inside the digester. Hence, to solve
this problem, ABD was completely mixed using the sludge recycling
pump (refer to Fig. 1) for almost an hour, daily, for the whole two
weeks. As shown in Fig. 4(b), the SS value for ABD-B was reduced to a
normal pattern afterwards and the fat-based foam emerging with the
ABD-B effluent slowly decreased each day. The employed extensive
stirring method was supported by Lindorfer and Demmig (2016) who
stated that the counteractions for the reduction of fat-based foam are to
(1) reduce the fat and oil contents in the feedstock in combination with
(2) continuous mixing of the foam into the digester. In the near future,
studies might show that waste disposal sites could filter or trap grease
from leachate as a preliminary treatment prior to continuing with the
secondary treatment.
The concentration of ammonia-nitrogen accumulated inside the
ABD did not exceed the toxic limitation threshold of 3000 mg/L (Drosg,
2013) but had a notably lower average value of 960 ± 106 mg NH3-N/
L throughout the ABD operations. This finding led to the longer oper-
ating time and more efficient performance of the ABD because de-
sludging needs to be performed whenever the ammonia level almost
exceeds the toxicity value which might result in loss of the potential
biomass from the discharge of settled sludge.
3.3. Removal of organic pollutants
Fig. 5 shows the variations and removal efficiency rates of (a) COD,
(b) BOD5 and (c) total phosphorus from the discharged effluent (ABD-B
samples) during the period of operation under decreased HRTs. The
Y. Arij et al.
Fig. 4. Suspended solids in (a) ABD-A and (b) ABD-B and (c) solid content (%)
in the digester throughout its operation.
COD concentrations were between 717 and 1727 mg COD/L (average
968 ± 173 mg COD/L), with a COD removal efficiency between
97 ± 1% and 98% (Fig. 5(a)). Compared with other technologies such
as anaerobic membrane bioreactors that experience problems with high
(membrane fouling) and low influent concentrations (decreased reactor
performance) (Svojitka et al., 2017), anaerobic digesters with cell im-
mobilization technology (biofilm and granular) have apparently shown
constant and large increases in COD removal performance with > 95%
efficiency throughout most operations (Arij et al., 2017; Lim and Kim,
2014; Luo et al., 2014; Shin et al., 2001).
The increase in COD removal efficiency of ABD which was
97 ± 1% during 30-day HRT and 98% for the rest of decreased HRTs
(refer Fig. 5(a)) was relatively connected to ABD’s conditions towards
methanogenic phase as indicated by reducing ORP values of ABD-A in
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Bioresource Technology 260 (2018) 213–220
Fig. 5. Variations and removal efficiencies in terms of (a) COD, (b) BOD5 and
(c) total phosphorus in the digester’s discharged effluent (ABD-B) throughout its
operation.
Fig. 2(b). Volatile fatty acids, also known as readily biodegradable COD
(RBCOD) fraction and measured as tVFA (Contrera et al., 2015; Mikola
et al., 2011), are the food for the biomass in methanogenesis process
which converted tVFA to methane gas. As shown in Fig. 3(a), during 30-
day HRT, the removal efficiency of tVFA was 98.7 ± 1.1% (ORP:
−228 ± 8 mV). As ORP values started to drop, nearing the values for
complete methanogenic phase (25-day HRT: −309 ± 99 mV; 20-day
HRT: −340 ± 12 mV; 10-day HRT: −348 ± 8 mV), the tVFA removal
efficiency increased slightly and showed similar constant values for 25-
day, 20-day and 10-day HRTs.
However, the removal efficiencies for both BOD5 (Fig. 5(b)) and
total phosphorus (Fig. 5(c)) were decreased, with the BOD5 showing a
slight 1% decrease and the total phosphorus showing a marked 10%
Y. Arij et al. Bioresource Technology 260 (2018) 213–220

decline during the 10-day HRT. The fat-based foam that formed during
the initial days of the 20-day and 10-day HRTs (refer to Section 3.2)
might have caused the increase in the ABD-B’s BOD5 concentration
(Fig. 5 (b)), which agreed with the increased VSS value (refer to Fig. 4
(b)) within the same time frame, hence showing a decrease in removal
performance. Because both parameters, VSS and BOD5, represent the
concentration of biomass in the wastewater samples (Delzer and
McKenzie, 2003; APHA, 2005), these findings indicate that the biomass
might have attached to the foams and was therefore washed out of the
digester together with the discharged effluent (ABD-B sample). How-
ever, this washout did not affect the ABD performance as demonstrated
by the finding that the removal efficiencies for COD and BOD5 remained
high (> 97%) because the biofilm technology allowed biomass pre-
servation within the tank, making it capable of receiving low and high
concentrations of organic contents in leachate.
Fig. 5(c) shows the total phosphorus throughout system’s operation,
depicting a high removal efficiency that is believed due to its miner-
alization inside the ABD which has also been reported by previous re-
search using different feeds (Banks et al., 2011; Masse et al., 2007;
Knoop et al., 2017). This finding was further proven by the findings that
the concentrations of iron (Fe), aluminium (Al) and calcium (Ca) ions of
the discharge effluent, which are the main elements that reacted with
orthophosphate to produce precipitates (de-Bashan and Bashan, 2004;
WDNR, 2009), showed reductions of > 97% for every HRT as presented
in Table 4. Furthermore, the ABD’s pH which is within the range of 6.0
to 8.5 for optimal chemical precipitation greatly aids this phosphorus
removal process (Sawsan et al., 2009). However, more tests such as
determinations of the iron, aluminium and calcium ion contents inside
the settled sludge of the ABD and the identification of the crystalline
metal phosphates inside the sludge using the X-ray diffraction (XRD)
method should be conducted to conclusively verify this finding.

3.4. Biogas production

During the 30-day HRT, the biogas composition was measured using
a portable biogas analyser every morning before the ABD was fed with
the leachate. However, the low pressure of the biogas and the constant
leaking from the ABD’s pipes caused inconsistent measurements, which
led to installation of a mounted thermal-mass flow metre after 60 days
Fig. 6. (a) Biogas production (composition and volume) throughout operation
of operations under the 30-day HRT because the thermal mass flow
and (b) relationship of biogas producing rate with organic loading rate (OLR).
metre was capable of measuring the precise biogas volumetric data
needed to validate performance of the ABD. The flow metre sensor was
placed in its default setting, composition values of 68% methane, 30% measured using the portable biogas analyser showed average methane
carbon dioxide and 2% nitrogen, which were based on the average values of 56 ± 11%, 59 ± 11%, 54 ± 11% and 62 ± 13% for 30-
maximum methane values measured during the 30-day HRT. day, 25-day, 20-day and 10-day HRTs respectively as shown in
Throughout the reduced HRT operations, the biogas compositions Fig. 6(a). The biogas volume during 25-day HRT was 26 ± 1 m3 and it
started to reduce and get constant to 24 ± 1 m3 during 20-day and 10-
Table 4 day HRTs. Fig. 6(b) shows the relationship of the biogas producing rate
Concentrations and removal percentages of elements involved in phosphorus with the OLR for reduced HRTs. The biogas producing rate disclosed the
removal inside the ABD via the chemical precipitation process. productivity of the digester (Wang, 2017) which as shown in Fig. 6(b),
presented steady and minor decreases of 4.3 ± 0.2, 4.1 ± 0.2 and
HRT Sample Element
4.0 ± 0.2 L biogas/L leachate/day for OLRs of 1.62 ± 0.19,
Fe Al Ca 1.80 ± 0.14 and 3.58 ± 1.39 g COD/L/day, respectively.
High biogas or methane yield values (in unit L gas/g COD added)
30-day Influent (mg/L) 17 ± 5 0.98 ± 0.65 1106 ± 240
were reported in high-rate anaerobic digesters because of the biomass
Effluent (mg/L) 0.20 ± 0.02 0.003 ± 0.001 28 ± 3
Removal (%) 99 100 97 ± 1 retention in these digesters enabled the productive methane fermenta-
tion (Abdurahman et al., 2011; Ahmad, 2016; Gulsen and Turan, 2004)
25-day Influent (mg/L) 32 ± 26 2.57 ± 2.03 90
Effluent (mg/L) 0.18 ± 0.02 0.001 2 For this project, the methane yield decreased concurrently with the
Removal (%) 99 ± 1 100 98 decreasing HRTs (refer Table 5) showing values of 1.09 ± 0.04,
20-day Influent (mg/L) 21 ± 14 2.02 ± 1.81 97 ± 7
0.77 ± 0.05 and 0.33 ± 0.03 L CH4/g COD added for 25-day, 20-day
Effluent (mg/L) 0.25 ± 0.05 0.002 ± 0.001 2±1 and 10-day HRTs respectively. High methane yield value achieved
Removal (%) 98 ± 2 99 ± 1 98 ± 1 during 25-day HRT was because of the high content of soluble COD in
10-day Influent (mg/L) 59 ± 42 4.46 ± 3.30 76 ± 15 the leachate feed (see Table 5) which contained RBCOD (VFARL) of
Effluent (mg/L) 0.36 ± 0.05 0.005 ± 0.002 2±1 11,425 ± 219 mg HOAc/L (refer Fig. 3(a)) for the biomass to quickly
Removal (%) 98 ± 2 100 98 ± 1 degrade. The methane yield started to decrease on 20-day HRT even

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Y. Arij et al.
Table 5
Relationships between COD (total, soluble and particulate) of leachate and ABD-A, VSS of ABD-A and methane yield.
Parameter Sample HRT (OLR)
25-day
(1.62 ± 0.19 g COD/L/day)
Total COD; tCOD (mg/L) Leachate 70,582 ± 4137
ABD-A 60,188 ± 5340
Soluble COD; COD (mg/L) Leachate 39,494 ± 3390
ABD-A 849 ± 85
Particulate COD; pCOD (mg/L) Leachate 31,088 ± 747
(tCOD-COD) ABD-A 59,340 ± 5318
Volatile suspended solid; VSS (mg/L) ABD-A 19,908 ± 3456
Methane yield (L CH4/g COD added) ABD system 1.09 ± 0.04
though the RBCOD content of leachate feed was similar with 25-day
HRT. This might have been caused by the use of feed substrate for
biomass growth as shown by the increased VSS value of ABD-A from
19,908 ± 3456 mg/L during 25-day HRT to 24,328 ± 3689 mg/L
(20-day HRT), hence directing feed substrate consumption away from
methane fermentation (Ahmad, 2016).
On 10-day HRT, the methane yield plunged to 0.33 ± 0.03 L CH4/g
COD added as the OLR doubled in value. Even though the soluble COD
of leachate feed was high, it only contained 9175 ± 2206 mg HOAc/L
of RBCOD, which lessened the amount of methane produced whilst a
drop in methane yield value. Furthermore, the leachate’s particulate
COD showed quite an increase from 32,935 ± 1693 mg/L (20-day
HRT) to 38,868 ± 1529 mg/L (10-day HRT). High particulate COD
contents in the feed substrate might result in low methane production
as the biomass needs to wait for the particulate COD to get hydrolysed
to soluble COD before consuming it for growth process or methane
generation (Biese, 2016). Hence, the increased particulate COD in
leachate feed throughout the decreasing HRTs has resulted in a con-
sistent decrease of methane yield values and an increase in particulate
COD of ABD-A (settled sludge) which values were 59,340 ± 5318 mg/
L, 69,402 ± 5561 mg/L and 74,909 ± 7522 mg/L for 25-day, 20-day
and 19-day HRTs respectively.
With constant biogas production starting on 20-day HRTs (see
Fig. 6(a)) and COD removal efficiency of 98% for 25-day HRT till 10-
day HRT (refer to Fig. 5(a)), the ABD seemed to achieve steady-state
condition on 20-day HRT but still able to receive double organic
loading during 10-day HRT without severe problem. The decrease in
the methane yield was due to the high content of particulate COD in the
leachate feed which could be solved in the future by improving the
solubility condition of the feed by doing pre-treatment (thermal, phy-
sical, chemical). Other than that, the accumulated particulate COD in
the settled sludge could be changed to soluble COD by enhancing the
contact between the biomass and the substrate via mixing (Vesvikar
and Al-Dahhan, 2006).
4. Conclusion
The monitoring undertaken at the ABD indicated that the system
was stable throughout operation which led to high COD, BOD5 and total
phosphorus removal efficiencies of 98 ± 1% %, 99 ± 1% and
92 ± 9% respectively. The system also produced high-quality biogas
with compositions of 57 ± 12% CH4 and 26 ± 6% CO2 and a volu-
metric generation of 25 ± 1 m3 biogas/day throughout operation.
Based on the monitoring and performance results, this pilot scale ABD
exhibits excellent potential for use as the main substitute treatment for
leachate and it could be further improved to receive higher organic
loadings over shorter HRTs which is a requirement for industrial use.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Higher Education
219
Bioresource Technology 260 (2018) 213–220
20-day 10-day
(1.80 ± 0.14 g COD/L/day) (3.58 ± 1.39 g COD/L/day)
69,412 ± 3736 83,255 ± 4087
70,253 ± 5590 75,836 ± 7544
36,477 ± 2043 44,386 ± 2558
851 ± 122 927 ± 82
32,935 ± 1693 38,868 ± 1529
69,402 ± 5561 74,909 ± 7522
24,328 ± 3689 20,679 ± 4370
0.77 ± 0.05 0.33 ± 0.03
(MOHE), Malaysia, for sponsoring this study (Grant number: PRGS/1/
2015/TK04/UKM/02/1) and also Alam Flora Sdn. Bhd for the supply of
leachate and technical support.
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