Impact of total solids content on anaerobic co-digestion of pig manure and food waste: Insights into shifting of the methanogenic pathway

Abstract

Dry anaerobic digestion (AD) has advantages over wet AD in treating high-solid organic wastes like livestock and food wastes, but an elevated total solids (TS) content would affect the AD performances. In this study, methane production of digesters co-digesting pig manure (PM) and food waste (FW) at different TS contents (R₁, TS 5%; R₂, TS 10%; R₃, TS 15%; and R₄, TS 20%) was assessed. The results showed the specific methane yield had no significant difference with the increase of TS contents from 5% to 15% (278.8-291.7 NmL/g VS_added), while it was reduced at a 20% TS content (259.8 NmL/g VS_added). Two peaks of total volatile fatty acids and daily methane production were observed in the high-solid digesters (R₂-R₄), while only one peak occurred in wet AD (R₁). A new kinetics model was developed to describe the two-peak methane production behavior at high TS contents. The analysis on the microbial community structure clearly showed the different evolutions of methanogenic pathways in low and high solids content systems. In dry AD (R₄), there was a general shifting from the acetoclastic pathway, to mixotrophic pathway and hydrogenotrophic pathway, with the dominance of mixotrophic and hydrogenotrophic methanogens.

Keywords: Acetoclastic methanogenesis; Dry anaerobic digestion; Hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis; Kinetic model; Microbial community structure; Mixotrophic methanogenesis..