Feed frequency in a Sequencing Batch Reactor strongly affects the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) from volatile fatty acids

The production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) by activated sludge selected in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) has been investigated. Several SBR runs were performed at the same applied organic load rate (OLR), hydraulic retention time (HRT) and feed concentration (8.5 g COD L-1 of volatile fatty acids, VFAs) under aerobic conditions. The effect of the feeding time was only evaluated with a cycle length of 8 h; for this particular cycle length, an increase in the storage response was observed by increasing the rate at which the substrate was fed into the reactor (at a fixed feeding frequency). Furthermore, a significantly stronger effect was observed by decreasing the cycle length from 8 h to 6 h and then to 2 h, changing the feed frequency or changing the organic load given per cycle (all of the other conditions remained the same): the length of the feast phase decreased from 26 to 20.0 and then to 19.7% of the overall cycle length, respectively, due to an increase in the substrate removal rate. This removal rate was high and similar for the runs with cycle lengths of 2 h and 6 h in the SBR. This result was due to an increase in the selective pressure and the specific storage properties of the selected biomass. The highest polymer productivity after long-term accumulation batch tests was 1.7 g PHA L-1 d(-1), with PHA content in the biomass of approximately 50% on a COD basis under nitrogen limitation. The DGGE profiles showed that the good storage performance correlated to the development of Lampropedia hyalina, which was only observed in the SBR runs characterized by a shorter cycle length.