The demand for biogas is continuously growing and the biogas substrate, such as food waste, may soon become limited and it is therefore important for biogas producers to expand the range of substrates. One way can be to use microalgae in co-digestion with sewage sludge.The present study explores the possibilities to use harvested microalgae from Lake Mälaren, as a co-substrate to sewage sludge in biogas production under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions. The aim is to investigate if codigestion of microalgae and sewage sludge is more efficient for biogas production compared using the sludge alone. The study has been carried out as a BMP-experiment (Biochemical Methane Potential) in batch fermentation bottles. The substrate was undigested sludge where 0%, 12 %, 25 % and 37 % were replaced with the cultivated microalgae. The results showed that the use of an algae/bacteria community, cultivated in prior to digestion, can serve as a biomass substrate for biogas production together with municipal wastewater sludge. Co-digestion of microalgae and sewage sludge can be more efficient for biogas production compared to using the sludge alone under mesophilic conditions. It can also be concluded that thermophilic co-digestion between the microalgae and sludge give lower biochemical methane potential.

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This study deals with the addition of paper tube residuals to a nitrogen-rich mixture of organic waste obtained from industrial and municipal activities. This nitrogen-rich mixture, called buffer tank substrate (BTS) in the following text, is used in a large-scale biogas plant. The effects were investigated in semi-continuous co-digestion processes, and variations in operational conditions were studied. The addition of paper tubes had stabilizing effects, prevented the failure of the process, and made it possible to decrease the hydraulic retention time from 25 to 20 days. Furthermore, synergetic effects were found, with 15−34% higher methane yields, when paper tubes were co-digested with BTS. Moreover, steam explosion pretreatment of the paper tube waste with the addition of 0−2% NaOH was evaluated by batch digestion experiments. Increasing the NaOH concentrations used in the pretreatment resulted in increasing methane yields, with the highest of 403 N mL of CH 4 g −1 of volatile solids (VS) corresponding to an increase by 50% compared to that when untreated paper was digested (268 N mL of CH 4 g −1 of VS). The long-term effects of this best pretreatment were further investigated by continuous co-digestion experiments, leading to a higher methane yield when pretreated paper tubes were used in the co-digestion process compared to untreated.