Immobilization of microorganisms for sludge anaerobic digestion was investigated in this study. The effects of filler properties on anaerobic digestion and dewaterability of waste activated sludge were assessed at mesophilic temperature in batch mode. The results showed that the duration of the methanogenic stage of reactors without filler, with only filler, and with pre-incubated filler was 39 days, 19 days and 13 days, respectively, during which time the protein was degraded by 45.0%, 29.4% and 30.0%, and the corresponding methane yield was 193.9, 107.2 and 108.2 mL/g volatile suspended solids added, respectively. On day 39, the final protein degradation efficiency of the three reactors was 45.0%, 40.9% and 42.0%, respectively. The results of normalized capillary suction time and specific resistance to filtration suggested that the reactor incorporating pre-incubated filler could improve the dewaterability of digested sludge, while the effect of the reactor incorporating only filler on sludge dewaterability was uncertain. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.