Abstract
Effluents from three liquid anaerobic digesters, fed with municipal sewage sludge, food waste, or dairy waste, were evaluated as inocula and nitrogen sources for solid-state batch anaerobic digestion of corn stover in mesophilic reactors. Three feedstock-to-effluent (F/E) ratios (i.e., 2, 4, and 6) were tested for each effluent. At an F/E ratio of 2, the reactor inoculated by dairy waste effluent achieved the highest methane yield of 238.5L/kgVSfeed, while at an F/E ratio of 4, the reactor inoculated by food waste effluent achieved the highest methane yield of 199.6L/kgVSfeed. The microbial population and chemical composition of the three effluents were substantially different. Food waste effluent had the largest population of acetoclastic methanogens, while dairy waste effluent had the largest populations of cellulolytic and xylanolytic bacteria. Dairy waste also had the highest C/N ratio of 8.5 and the highest alkalinity of 19.3g CaCO3/kg. The performance of solid-state batch anaerobic digestion reactors was closely related to the microbial status in the liquid anaerobic digestion effluents.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 26-32 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Waste Management |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2013 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors would like to thank the Ohio Third Frontier Program and quasar energy group for their financial support. The authors would like to thank Mrs. Mary Wicks (Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, OSU) for reading through the manuscript and providing useful suggestions.
Keywords
- Biogas
- Corn stover
- Inoculum
- Methanogen
- Solid-state anaerobic digestion
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Waste Management and Disposal
