The rational utilization of crop straw as a raw material for natural gas production is of economic significance. In order to increase the efficiency of biogas production from agricultural straw, seasonal restrictions must be overcome. Therefore, the potential for biogas production via anaerobic straw digestion was assessed by exposing fresh, silage, and dry yellow corn straw to cow dung liquid extract as a nitrogen source. The characteristics of anaerobic corn straw digestion were comprehensively evaluated by measuring the pH, gas production, chemical oxygen demand, methane production, and volatile fatty acid content, as well as applying a modified Gompertz model and high-throughput sequencing technology to the resident microbial community. The efficiency of biogas production from fresh straw (433.8 ml/g) was higher than that of production from straw silage and dry yellow straw (46.55 ml/g and 68.75 ml/g, respectively). The cumulative biogas production from fresh straw, silage straw, and dry yellow straw was 365 l(-1) g(-1) VS, 322 l(-1) g-1 VS, and 304 l(-1) g(-1) VS, respectively, whereas cumulative methane production was 1,426.33%, 1,351.35%, and 1,286.14%, respectively, and potential biogas production was 470.06 ml(-1) g(-1) VS, 461.73 ml(-1) g(-1) VS, and 451.76 ml(-1) g(-1) VS, respectively. Microbial community analysis showed that the corn straw was mainly metabolized by acetate-utilizing methanogens, with Methanosaeta as the dominant archaeal community. These findings provide important guidance to the biogas industry and farmers with respect to rational and efficient utilization of crop straw resources as material for biogas production.
Keywords: anaerobic fermentation; biogas; corn straw; cow dung; methane; methanosaeta.