Dark fermentation production of volatile fatty acids from glucose with biochar amended biological consortium

Jia-Hsun Lu; Chuan Chen; Chihpin Huang; Huichuan Zhuang; Shao-Yuan Leu; Duu-Jong Lee

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2020.122921

Dark fermentation production of volatile fatty acids from glucose with biochar amended biological consortium

Bioresour Technol. 2020 May:303:122921. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.122921. Epub 2020 Jan 29.

Authors

Jia-Hsun Lu¹, Chuan Chen², Chihpin Huang³, Huichuan Zhuang⁴, Shao-Yuan Leu⁴, Duu-Jong Lee⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan.
² State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
³ Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong; Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei 106, Taiwan; College of Engineering, Tunghai University, Taichung 407, Taiwan; College of Technology and Engineering, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei 10610, Taiwan. Electronic address: djlee@ntu.edu.tw.

PMID: 32028217
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.122921

Abstract

Effects of adding biochars on dark fermentation production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from glucose were investigated. Nine biochars were synthesized and applied, together with an activated carbon, as the testing amendment to enhance preferable fermentation. Biochars were porous materials with internal pores and excess surface functional groups, which would lead to enrichment of acetate over butyrate in the VFA production. Biochar coconut and biochar longan shell showed excess functional groups and high bulk internal crystallinity, presented 109.6% and 71.8% enrichments of acetate production, respectively. The syntrophic growth of fermentative bacteria and homoacetogens on biochar surfaces via direct interspecies electron transfer mechanism was assumed to interpret the noted enhanced acetate production. The excess functional groups on biochar surface to facilitate biofilm development and the high crystallinity of biochar bulk to ease electron transfer favored the production of acetate.

Keywords: Biochar; DIET; Fermentative consortium; Property; Volatile fatty acids.

MeSH terms

Charcoal*
Fatty Acids, Volatile
Fermentation
Glucose*

Substances

Fatty Acids, Volatile
biochar
Charcoal
Glucose