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Anaerobic co-digestion of sludge and organic food waste-performance, inhibition, and impact on the microbial community

Keucken, Alexander LU ; Habagil, Moshe ; Batstone, Damien LU ; Jeppsson, Ulf LU and Arnell, Magnus LU (2018) In Energies 11(9).
Abstract

Anaerobic co-digestion allows for under-utilised digesters to increase biomethane production. The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), i.e., food waste, is an abundant substrate with high degradability and gas potential. This paper investigates the co-digestion of mixed sludge from wastewater treatment plants and OFMSW, through batch and continuous lab-scale experiments, modelling, and microbial population analysis. The results show a rapid adaptation of the process, and an increase of the biomethane production by 20% to 40%, when co-digesting mixed sludge with OFMSW at a ratio of 1:1, based on the volatile solids (VS) content. The introduction of OFMSW also has an impact on the microbial community. With 50% co-substrate... (More)

Anaerobic co-digestion allows for under-utilised digesters to increase biomethane production. The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), i.e., food waste, is an abundant substrate with high degradability and gas potential. This paper investigates the co-digestion of mixed sludge from wastewater treatment plants and OFMSW, through batch and continuous lab-scale experiments, modelling, and microbial population analysis. The results show a rapid adaptation of the process, and an increase of the biomethane production by 20% to 40%, when co-digesting mixed sludge with OFMSW at a ratio of 1:1, based on the volatile solids (VS) content. The introduction of OFMSW also has an impact on the microbial community. With 50% co-substrate and constant loading conditions (1 kg VS/m3/d) the methanogenic activity increases and adapts towards acetate degradation, while the community in the reference reactor, without a co-substrate, remains unaffected. An elevated load (2 kg VS/m3/d) increases the methanogenic activity in both reactors, but the composition of the methanogenic population remains constant for the reference reactor. The modelling shows that ammonium inhibition increases at elevated organic loads, and that intermittent feeding causes fluctuations in the digester performance, due to varying inhibition. The paper demonstrates how modelling can be used for designing feed strategies and experimental set-ups for anaerobic co-digestion.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Anaerobic digestion, Co-digestion, Mathematical modelling, Microbial community, Solid waste, Wastewater treatment
in
Energies
volume
11
issue
9
article number
2325
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85054058521
ISSN
1996-1073
DOI
10.3390/en11092325
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d208743d-3284-4946-bc8b-8de1d4ae3cc7
date added to LUP
2018-10-12 09:59:53
date last changed
2022-03-09 21:21:20
@article{d208743d-3284-4946-bc8b-8de1d4ae3cc7,
  abstract     = {{<p>Anaerobic co-digestion allows for under-utilised digesters to increase biomethane production. The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), i.e., food waste, is an abundant substrate with high degradability and gas potential. This paper investigates the co-digestion of mixed sludge from wastewater treatment plants and OFMSW, through batch and continuous lab-scale experiments, modelling, and microbial population analysis. The results show a rapid adaptation of the process, and an increase of the biomethane production by 20% to 40%, when co-digesting mixed sludge with OFMSW at a ratio of 1:1, based on the volatile solids (VS) content. The introduction of OFMSW also has an impact on the microbial community. With 50% co-substrate and constant loading conditions (1 kg VS/m<sup>3</sup>/d) the methanogenic activity increases and adapts towards acetate degradation, while the community in the reference reactor, without a co-substrate, remains unaffected. An elevated load (2 kg VS/m<sup>3</sup>/d) increases the methanogenic activity in both reactors, but the composition of the methanogenic population remains constant for the reference reactor. The modelling shows that ammonium inhibition increases at elevated organic loads, and that intermittent feeding causes fluctuations in the digester performance, due to varying inhibition. The paper demonstrates how modelling can be used for designing feed strategies and experimental set-ups for anaerobic co-digestion.</p>}},
  author       = {{Keucken, Alexander and Habagil, Moshe and Batstone, Damien and Jeppsson, Ulf and Arnell, Magnus}},
  issn         = {{1996-1073}},
  keywords     = {{Anaerobic digestion; Co-digestion; Mathematical modelling; Microbial community; Solid waste; Wastewater treatment}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{9}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Energies}},
  title        = {{Anaerobic co-digestion of sludge and organic food waste-performance, inhibition, and impact on the microbial community}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/en11092325}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/en11092325}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}