Semi-continuous anaerobic co-digestion of marine microalgae with potato processing waste for methane production

Co-digestion of microalgae with potato processing waste and glycerol: effect of glycerol addition on methane production and the microbial community

“…70 However, in the current study, to prevent confusion we use the established name (Methanosaeta) as it is generally used in very recent studies. 4,71 From days 23 to 54, the total VFA concentrations of digesters C1, C2 and C4 decreased steadily, with acetic acid concentrations remaining below 100 mg L À1 (Fig. S1 and S2 †); acetic acid concentration correlating negatively with Methanosaeta abundance (r s (34) ¼ À0.395, p ¼ 0.021).…”

“…The detailed information of preparation of two PPW feedstocks (PPW dp and PPW p ) were described by previous studies. 4,22 The feedstocks of C. vulgaris, PPW dp and PPW p were characterised for their total solids (TS), volatile solids (VS), total chemical oxygen demand (COD t ), and carbohydrate and protein content as well as C and N content.…”

“…Eight identical one litre Duran bottles (VWR, UK) with a working volume of 0.8 L were used as the semi-continuous codigestion digesters, and detailed information of the digester conguration was described by Zhang et al (2019). 4 At the beginning of the experiment, all digesters were lled with 0.8 L of anaerobic inoculum, and ushed with N 2 to ensure anaerobic conditions. The semi-continuous digesters were kept at constant temperature of 37 C by a temperature-controlled water-bath.…”

“…2 Microalgae have a number of advantages over conventional biomass, including high productivity, lower lignin content, less land requirement and high photosynthetic efficiency. 3,4 There is growing interest in the mass production of microalgae for a range of biotechnology and bioengineering applications, ranging from the extraction of individual chemicals to the use of the entire biomass, oen for fuels or environmental remediation activities. 5 However, growing microalgae specically for low value, high volume products such as biodiesel is well documented as being economically unfeasible using current culture and processing practices.…”

“…Previously, we demonstrated stable co-digestion of a freshwater microalga (Chlorella vulgaris) and a marine microalga (Tisochrysis lutea) with PPW in batch and semi-continuous modes. 4,22 However, reliance on a single waste-stream could pose some operational risks to an AD plant, 23 furthermore in order to improve the economics of the process, secure co-feedstock supply is important. Therefore, in the current study we introduce an additional level of feed complexity by including glycerol as a secondary co-digestion feedstock.…”