Membrane bioreactor-assisted volatile fatty acids production and in situ recovery from cow manure

Umarin Jomnonkhaow; Clarisse Uwineza; Amir Mahboubi; Steven Wainaina; Alissara Reungsang; Mohammad J Taherzadeh

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124456

Membrane bioreactor-assisted volatile fatty acids production and in situ recovery from cow manure

Bioresour Technol. 2021 Feb:321:124456. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124456. Epub 2020 Nov 27.

Authors

Umarin Jomnonkhaow¹, Clarisse Uwineza², Amir Mahboubi³, Steven Wainaina², Alissara Reungsang⁴, Mohammad J Taherzadeh²

Affiliations

¹ Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery, University of Borås, 50190 Borås, Sweden; Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Technology, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand.
² Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery, University of Borås, 50190 Borås, Sweden.
³ Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery, University of Borås, 50190 Borås, Sweden. Electronic address: amir.mahboubi_soufiani@hb.se.
⁴ Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Technology, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand; Research Group for Development of Microbial Hydrogen Production Process from Biomass, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002, Thailand; Academic of Science, Royal Society of Thailand, Bangkok 10300, Thailand.

PMID: 33276207
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.124456

Abstract

Cow manure (CM) generation in large volumes has for long been considered a waste management challenge. However, the organic content of CM signals opportunities for the production of value-added bioproducts such as volatile fatty acids (VFAs) through anaerobic digestion (AD). However, a robust VFAs fermentation process requires effective methane formation inhibition and enhance VFAs recovery. In this study, thermal pretreatment was applied to inhibit methanogens for enhanced VFAs production and an immersed membrane bioreactor (iMBR) for in situ recovery of VFAs in a semi-continuous AD. Maximal VFAs yield of 0.41 g VFAs/g volatile solids (VS) was obtained from thermally-treated CM without inoculum addition. The CM was further fed to the iMBR operating at organic loading rates of 0.8-4.7 gVS/L.d. The VFAs concentration increased to 6.93 g/L by rising substrate loading to 4.7 g VS/L.d. The applied iMBR set-up was successfully used for stable long-term (114 days) VFAs production and recovery.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Cow manure; Membrane bioreactor; Volatile fatty acids.

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
Animals
Bioreactors*
Cattle
Fatty Acids, Volatile
Female
Fermentation
Manure*
Methane

Substances

Fatty Acids, Volatile
Manure
Methane