Anaerobic digestion of phenol rich influent

Aims of this study were (1) to investigate the phenol-degrading anaerobic population in operationally identical reactors in order to identify key players involved in phenol degradation and resistance in AD reactors and (2) to determine the impact of the inoculum in shaping the structure of the phenol-degrading community. It was tested whether different starting communities, adapted to different phenolic compounds, were as effective in treating a mixture of dairy and phenolic wastewater.Four different inocula were studied in triplicate lab-scale reactors run over a period of 180 to 265 days. The reactors were operated at mesophilic conditions with a mixture of a synthetic dairy and phenol wastewater.