The Influence of Trace Elements on Anaerobic Digestion Process

Abstract

The article is the literature review on the importance of trace elements supplementation in the methane fermentation process. The production of biogas, including methane, as well as the efficiency of the process depend on the substrates to be fermented. Substances supplied with the substrate as well as products generated in the decomposition phases can inhibit the process. The factor limiting fermentation is the rate of enzymatic hydrolysis of substrates. Certain compounds, such as alkanes, alkenes, biphenol, aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols and ketones, are not directly susceptible to hydrolysis. They undergo this process in the presence of extracellular enzymes. The instability of the methane fermentation process described in the literature may be related to the lack of trace elements or micronutrients. Trace elements (Co, Ni, Cu, Mn, Fe, Zn, Se and Mo) are components of enzymes, some bacterial nucleic acids and essential for the synthesis of vitamins. The role of some trace elements, eg. Fe or Mo, has been well understood, while the importance of others still needs to be clarified. Literature data indicate that supplementing trace elements not only prevents process inhibition, but can also improve its performance by providing higher methane production.

Derivation of volatile fatty acids concentration-independent optimum trace elements configuration and elucidation of optimization kinetics of biomethanization processes

“…Figure 6a confirms that the differences in the improvements of the MRR of the three TEs supplemented scenarios are significant compared to the MRR of the Control scenario. This, while consistent with earlier findings of TEs effects on biomethanization (Ariunbaatar et al, 2016;He, et al, 2018;Meegoda, et al, 2018;Myszograj et al, 2019), also clearly corroborates reports of the ability of TEs supplementation to significantly induce increase in rate-related phenomenon during AD (Zhang et al, 2016). In addition, Table 2 shows that the VFA-120 scenario has an MRR improvement that is significantly superior to the Compromise and VFA-dependent scenarios.…”

“…Hence, the lack of difference in CH 4 production between the TEs scenarios is understandable given that the relative values of the CH 4 were derived from cumulative CH 4 data, which were obtained at the end of the experiment. Overall, the low desirability of the Control scenario compared to the TEs supplemented scenarios is consistent with reported low process efficiency during the AD of food waste under conditions of nutrient deficiency (Zhang and Banks, 2010;Myszograj et al, 2019). Similarly, the observed enhancements in biomethanization in the TEs supplemented scenarios agree with published reports on TEs-based improvements in the stability of the biomethanization of different substrates including synthetic model substrate (Pobeheim et al, 2010), wheat silage (Gustavsson et al, 2011) and industrial food waste (Feng et al, 2010).…”

Effect of bioaugmentation on digestate metal concentrations in anaerobic digestion of sewage sludge

“…Moreover, this may cause the digester upset or failure and limit the application of sewage sludge as fertilizer or soil conditioner. However, many heavy metals categorized as trace elements (Co, Ni, Cu, Mn, Fe, Zn, Se and Mo) are part of central ligands of the essential enzymes that initiate several anaerobic processes as well as components of some bacterial nucleic acids; these elements are also required for the synthesis of vitamins [8][9][10].…”

Biodecolourisation of Reactive Red 120 as a Sole Carbon Source by a Bacterial Consortium—Toxicity Assessment and Statistical Optimisation

“…The most important trace elements in micronutrients mostly involved in aerobic digestion efficiency are cobalt, nickel, molybdenum, zinc and magnesium [ 41 ]. Molybdenum functions as cofactors for various enzymes, nickel is needed for the synthesis of coenzymes, zinc is known for stimulating cell growth, iron acts as an electron acceptor, calcium is needed for membrane permeability and both copper and cobalt for metallic enzyme activator [ 42 ].…”