The Role of Slurry Reflux in a Corn Stalk Continuous Anaerobic Digestion System: Performance and Microbial Community

Abstract

Slurry reflux is a low-cost slurry reduction technology, which can solve the problem that a large amount of slurry cannot be completely consumed in a biogas plant. Anaerobic digestion (AD) of corn stalks with slurry reflux and non-reflux was compared and evaluated in continuous anaerobic digestion to clarify the effects of slurry reflux on AD with organic loading rate (OLR) variation. It was found that slurry reflux increased cumulative methane production and improved system stability. The average methane yield of the slurry reflux group was 224.19 mL/gVS, which was 41.35% higher than that of the non-reflux group. High-throughput sequencing results showed that slurry reflux increased the microbial community richness. The dominant microorganisms in the reflux group were in phylum Bacteroidetes, which have the capacity to degrade polymers, and Methanothrix, which is an aceticlastic methanogen. The relative abundances of Bacteroidetes and Methanothrix were 32.41% and 41.75%, respectively. Clostridium III and Saccharofermentans, which are related to syntrophic acetate oxidation and hydrolysis, were increased in relative abundance in the slurry reflux system. The increase of the OLR altered the main methane-producing pathway from the acetoclastic methanogenic pathway to the hydrogenotrophic methanogenic pathway in the AD system, and the slurry reflux can delay this trend. This study provided an effective way for the reduction and utilization of slurry in a biogas plant.

Effect of zero‐valent iron (ZVI) and biogas slurry reflux on methane production by anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge

“…Figure 1(b) shows the cumulative methane production during the AD process, which is facilitated by the reflux of the biogas slurry. Refluxed biogas slurry is slightly alkaline and can replenish the anaerobic system with alkaline and anaerobic microorganisms (Zhao et al, 2023). Additionally, organic components in biogas slurry, such as auxin, humic acid, and mineral nutrients, may allow microorganisms to access more carbon and nitrogen sources, thus further enriching methanogens (Yang et al, 2023).…”