Industrial
Digester sludge down 18% and biogas up 11.3% in three months, while the plant took 1.8% more load.
City of Hod Hasharon digesters · Hod Hasharon, Israel · 22 October 2026
The challenge
The plant already performed well. The operators' question was whether biological augmentation could take more out of the sludge and turn it into more biogas, which they recover and use as fuel.
The approach
A MICROBE-LIFT® programme was added to the digesters, and after three months the plant's own data were compared with the previous 15 months of operation.
Results
−18%
Sludge removed
+11.3%
Biogas
+1.8%
Plant loading at the time
Over 20%
Later sludge reduction
Even with 1.8% more hydraulic and organic load, the plant removed 18% less sludge and produced 11.3% more biogas than in the previous 15 months. The fall in volatile solids tracked the rise in gas closely, which points to more complete digestion as the reason. By summer 2006 sludge reduction had passed 20%, with better effluent and less odour. An 11% gain sits inside the 10–15% range Ecological Laboratories quote as typical for biogas output, and results vary with the plant.
Source documentation
Ecological Laboratories case studies (opens in a new tab)