Potential of Polyurethane Foam as a Carrier during Initial Biofilm Formation of Methanogenic Consortium

The potential of polyurethane (PU) foam as a biofilm carrier for the methanogenic consortium was
observed in this study by operating two anaerobic reactors without (R1) and with a carbon source (R2). The results showed that optimum microbial attachment and methanogenic activities on PU foam of R1 only occurred until day 20 as 1.15 g VSS and 0.005 g COD-CH4/PU cubes per day, respectively. While the addition of a carbon source in R2 contributed to better microbial retention on PU foam indicated by higher total biomass on PU foam (1.45 g VSS) and their methanogenic activities (0.008 g COD-CH4/PU cubes per day). This study showed that the addition of a carbon source could contribute to a more stable biofilm structure on PU foam since the attachment mechanism (R1) was not enough to retain the microbial biomass on PU foam as a biofilm.