Influence of immobilization supports on the kinetic constants of anaerobic purification of olive mill wastewater

Studies are made of the anaerobic digestion of olive mill wastewater (OMW) using bioreactors housing various suspended supports for immobilization of the microorganisms. The OMW inhibited the digestion as the digester loadings increased, and the support medium affected the inhibition. By applying the international Time Series Processor (TSP) computer program, version 4·0 D (Stanford, CA, USA), through the Roediger equation G = G_mm[1 − exp ( − K_obst)], to the resultsobtained the G_m and K_obs values were calculated. From the G_m values was then calculated the coefficient of yield for each support. The results show the influence of the different supports used to immobilize the bacteria on the biomethanation of OMW; this is of relevance to the development of fluidized-bed processes.