Industrial
Digester rose from 70% to 130% of design efficiency, fell back with a rival product, and recovered when MICROBE-LIFT® returned.
City of Busan anaerobic digesters · Busan, South Korea · 22 October 2026
The challenge
Rapid urban growth kept pushing more load onto the city's treatment works, while the digesters were reaching only 70% of their design efficiency for volatile suspended solids (VSS) reduction.
The approach
Following trials in 5,000-litre pilot reactors, MICROBE-LIFT®/IND was dosed into four digesters on a fixed schedule: a heavier start-up over the first 37 days, then maintenance twice a week.
Results
70% of design
Before MICROBE-LIFT®
130% of design
Within 90 days
Back to 70%
Year on a rival product
130% again
MICROBE-LIFT® restored
Within 90 days, VSS reduction went from 70% to 130% of design efficiency. The city has kept using the programme, except for one year when it switched to a Japanese supplier's product and efficiency fell back to 70%. When MICROBE-LIFT®/IND was reinstated the next year, the digesters returned to 130%. That on-off-on record is about as close to a controlled comparison as a working plant gets. It is a municipal sludge digester, not a farm-fed AD plant, and results depend on feedstock and operating conditions.
Source documentation
Ecological Laboratories case studies (opens in a new tab)