Combined bioaugmentation with anaerobic ruminal fungi and fermentative bacteria to enhance biogas production from wheat straw and mushroom spent straw

Alberto Ferraro; Giulia Dottorini; Giulia Massini; Valentina Mazzurco Miritana; Antonella Signorini; Giuseppe Lembo; Massimiliano Fabbricino

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2018.03.128

Combined bioaugmentation with anaerobic ruminal fungi and fermentative bacteria to enhance biogas production from wheat straw and mushroom spent straw

Bioresour Technol. 2018 Jul:260:364-373. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.03.128. Epub 2018 Apr 3.

Authors

Alberto Ferraro¹, Giulia Dottorini², Giulia Massini³, Valentina Mazzurco Miritana⁴, Antonella Signorini³, Giuseppe Lembo⁴, Massimiliano Fabbricino⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Via di Biasio 43, 03043 Cassino, Italy. Electronic address: alberto.ferraro3@gmail.com.
² Department of Energy Technologies, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Via Anguillarese 301, 00123 Rome, Italy; Department of Biology and Biotechnology Charles Darwin, University of Rome La Sapienza, Piazzale A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy.
³ Department of Energy Technologies, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Via Anguillarese 301, 00123 Rome, Italy.
⁴ Department of Energy Technologies, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Via Anguillarese 301, 00123 Rome, Italy; Department of Ecological and Biological Sciences, University of Tuscia, Largo Università snc, 01100 Viterbo, Italy.
⁵ Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Naples "Federico II", Via Claudio 21, 80125 Naples, Italy.

PMID: 29649729
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.03.128

Abstract

Bioaugmentation with anaerobic ruminal fungi and a pool of hydrogen-producing fermenting bacteria was tested on wheat straw (WS) and mushroom spent straw (MSS) with the aim of improving anaerobic digestion performance. Batch tests were set up to simulate a Bioaugmentation Anaerobic Digestion (BAD) treatment comparing single- (I-BAD) and two-stage (II-BAD) process configurations, at two reactor scales, 120 and 1200 ml (×10). In both cases, higher CH₄ cumulative production was obtained in the II-BAD configuration on WS (65.1 ± 8.9 Nml and 922 ± 73.8 Nml respectively). The II-BADx10 tests allowed increasing CH₄ production (≃290% and ≃330% on WS and MSS, respectively) when compared to the unaugmented condition. Final results highlighted the achievable advantages of the two stage configuration in terms of CH₄ production enhancement. Microbial community investigations confirmed the efficiency of the bioaugmentation treatment and revealed that such a result was mainly related to the Methanosarcinales increase, mostly composed by Methanosaeta.

Keywords: Anaerobic fungi; Bioaugmentation; Fermenting bacteria; Lignocellulosic substrates; Methane.

MeSH terms

Agaricales*
Anaerobiosis
Bacteria
Bacteria, Anaerobic
Biofuels*
Methane
Triticum*

Substances

Biofuels
Methane