The effects of detergents on anaerobic digestion

Summary The anionic detergent sodium dodecylbenzene sulphonate (SDBS) inhibited mesophilic fermentation in anaerobic digesters. Total gas production and methanogenesis from glucose were reduced to half maximal rates at between 20 and 50 ppm SDBS during the initial phase of digestion, and over 20 days the pH declined from 7.4 to 6.0 in inhibited cultures. As well as accentuating the accumulation of propionic, iso-butyric and iso-valeric acids, a most remarkable effect of this anionic detergent observed only at high concentrations (100 ppm) was to divert the pathway of fermentation with transient accumulation of ethanol. Methanogenesis from cellulose was also inhibited. In thermophilic populations degrading glucose, SDBS was less toxic, and ethanol was not produced. Both the non-ionic detergent Tergitol (nonyl phenyl polyethylene glycol ether) and soap were virtually without effect on the mesophilic anaerobic digestion of glucose.