Study of microbial community and biodegradation efficiency for single- and two-phase anaerobic co-digestion of brown water and food waste

Changes in bacterial and archaeal communities in anaerobic digesters treating different organic wastes

“…Lactobacillus sp., affiliated with B14 and 15 and reported to be predominant in the fermentation of FW, can be responsible for the solubilization and acidification of FW and septage (Ye et al, 2007). Their presence, accordingly, reflects the ability of digesters to metabolize a variety of substrates such as protein, lipids and sugar (Lim et al, 2013). The abundance of the 16S rRNA gene within the target microbial groups in the digesters is shown in Fig.…”

“…1), indicating more enhancement of the hydrogenotrophic pathways of methane formation. A shift to hydrogenotrophic methanogens could be attributed to increased volatile fatty acids (VFA) concentrations, leading to an increase in hydrogen production (Lim et al, 2013). Well established hydrogenotrophic methanogens possibly allowed the syntrophic VFA oxidizer to grow more quickly as well as to degrade propionate more rapidly (McMahon et al, 2001), explaining detection of Syntrophus sp.…”

“…In AD of wastes, consortia of microorganisms, comprising bacterial and archaeal groups transform complex, high molecular weight organic compounds to methane. The bacterial group hydrolyzes and ferments organic compounds to form hydrogen and organic acids, while methanogens in archaeal groups produce methane using intermediates such as formate, hydrogen and acetate (Lee et al, 2009;Lim et al, 2013). For the complete bioconversion of organic wastes to methane, synergistic, sequential interactions between the various groups of microorganisms are implicated in anaerobic digesters.…”

Importance of storage time in mesophilic anaerobic digestion of food waste

“…In the literature, two-stage digestion is usually reported to have a methanogenesis efficiency of 7%-23% (Shen et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2006;Lim et al, 2013) higher than one-stage digestion, while some studies found that the methane production in two-stage systems might be comparable or even inferior to single stage systems due to lower bacteria diversity and negative effects on the syntrophic association between acidogenens/acetogens and methanogens (Schievano et al, 2012;Merlino et al, 2013). Compared to two-stage digestion, storage treatment together with methane fermentation can already increase methane production by 40% in 21 and by 100% in 60 days as demonstrated in this study, and has great advantages in terms of economy and manipulation.…”

Selective digestion of industrial potato wastes for efficient biomethanation: a sustainable solution for safe environmental disposal

“…He et al (2005) demonstrated that leachate recirculation in a methanogenic reactor might be an efficient way to improve waste stabilization and enhance the rate of biogas production. Lim et al (2013) had reported that methane production in two-phase digestion was found to be 23 % higher during anaerobic digestion of food waste and brown water when compared to the single phase. This was probably due to improved solubilization and acidification observed in the two-phase system.…”