ABSTRACT
An essential step in evaluating the feasibility of anaerobic treatment for industrial wastewaters which contain potential toxic or inhibitory materials is determination of the activity levels of anaerobic biomass in the presence of these compounds. Over the past ten years several methods have been developed to assay the toxicity which were based on gas production or methane production. 1 - 3 These methods use acetate or an acetate/ propionate mixture as substrates. Methanogenesis from acetate accounts for approximately 70% methane from acetate in anaerobic digesters 4 - 6 and most attention has focused on determining the level of inhibition of the acetoclastic methanogens. The importance of assessing the toxic effect produced on syntrophic acetogenesis has been mentioned. 7 However, an assay protocol to examine the level to which the different syntrophic acetogens are inhibited has not been established.
