Recovery of anaerobic digestion after exposure to toxicants. Final report

The concept that methane fermentation cannot tolerate chronic or slug doses of toxicants has almost totally precluded methane fermentation as a viable contender for the treatment of industrial wastewaters. This study assayed a wide variety of toxicants, heavy metals, inorganic salts, organic chemicals, solvents, and antibiotics which are used in industrial processes and, therefore, appear in the industrial wastewaters therefrom. Toxicity was related to the reduction in methane production of a control containing no toxicant. The response of methane fermentation after exposure to a toxicant was assayed with unacclimated cultures as well as cultures which had been acclimated to increasing concentrations of the toxicant over long periods of time. The reversible nature of the toxicants was assayed by adding slug doses to plug flow anaerobic filters and recording gas production prior to, during, and after toxicant addition