Thermophilic co-digestion of organic fraction of municipal solid wastes with FOG wastes from a sewage treatment plant: Reactor performance and microbial community monitoring

Abstract

Working at thermophilic conditions instead of mesophilic, and also the addition of a co-substrate, are both the ways to intend to improve the anaerobic digestion of the source-collected organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (SC-OFMSW). Addition of sewage treatment plant fat, oil and grease wastes (STP-FOGW), that are nowadays sent to landfill, would represent an opportunity to recover a wasted methane potential and, moreover, improve the whole process. In this study, after a first period feeding only SC-OFMSW, a co-digestion step was performed maintaining thermophilic conditions. During the co-digestion period enhancements in biogas production (52%) and methane yield (36%) were achieved. In addition, monitoring of microbial structure by using PCR-DGGE and cloning techniques showed that bacterial community profiles clustered in two distinct groups, before and after the extended contact with STP-FOGW, being more affected by the STP-FOGW addition than the archaeal one.

Silage as source of bacteria and electrons for dark fermentative hydrogen production

“…R. xylanolyticum is a rumen bacterium and degrades xylan. It has been earlier reported in a thermophilic anaerobic reactor co-treating organic fraction of municipal solid wastes and fat, oil and grease wastes [37]. G. thermotolerans grows between 25 and 54 C and at pH 6.0e8.3.…”

Transition of microbial communities during the adaption to anaerobic digestion of carrot waste

“…Synergistetes is a group of microorganisms that couples H 2 production to the consumption of volatile fatty acids (Sekiguchi et al, 2000) and it has also been detected in other similar studies (Martin-Gonzalez et al 2011). Many other studies have also found members of the Firmicutes and the Bacteroidetes to be very abundant in different anaerobic reactors (Zhang et al 2011;Martin-Gonzalez et al 2011;Calderon et al 2011).…”

“…Many other studies have also found members of the Firmicutes and the Bacteroidetes to be very abundant in different anaerobic reactors (Zhang et al 2011;Martin-Gonzalez et al 2011;Calderon et al 2011). Firmicutes are known for being very resistant microorganisms, as well as endospore producers.…”

Methane Recovery and Microbial Community Analysis of a High Solid Thermophilic Co-digestion of Sewage Sludge and Waste Fried Tofu

“…In addition, stable digestions were obtained at substrate concentration of 100 g/L for sludge digestion and 101.5 g/L for co-digestion. It was reported that thermophilic digestion has some advantages over mesophilic digestion, including higher digestion rate, greater conversion of organics to biogas, as well as destruction of pathogenic microorganisms [16][17][18][19].…”