TY - JOUR
T1 - Microbial profiling during anaerobic digestion of cheese whey in reactors operated at different conditions
AU - Treu, Laura
AU - Tsapekos, Panagiotis
AU - Peprah, Maria
AU - Campanaro, Stefano
AU - Giacomini, Alessio
AU - Corich, Viviana
AU - Kougias, Panagiotis
AU - Angelidaki, Irini
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - This study investigates the efficiency in methane production of lab-scale mesophilic (37 °C) and thermophilic (54 °C) continuous stirred tank reactors fed with cheese whey at different operational conditions. Results showed that whey mono-digestion was feasible at mesophilic conditions, while at thermophilic conditions frequent acidification incidents were recorded. The limited buffer capacity of the influent feedstock was responsible for the unstable anaerobic digestion process. The co-digestion of cheese whey with cattle manure maintained the pH levels higher than 7.0, and therefore, stable methane production rates were achieved without any significant accumulation of volatile fatty acids. An additional enhancement of the methane productivity was achieved by in-situ H2 dispersion. Microbial community composition was investigated using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and results were correlated with process parameters. Hydrogenotrophic methanogens were the dominant archaea during the whole experiment at mesophilic and thermophilic conditions.
AB - This study investigates the efficiency in methane production of lab-scale mesophilic (37 °C) and thermophilic (54 °C) continuous stirred tank reactors fed with cheese whey at different operational conditions. Results showed that whey mono-digestion was feasible at mesophilic conditions, while at thermophilic conditions frequent acidification incidents were recorded. The limited buffer capacity of the influent feedstock was responsible for the unstable anaerobic digestion process. The co-digestion of cheese whey with cattle manure maintained the pH levels higher than 7.0, and therefore, stable methane production rates were achieved without any significant accumulation of volatile fatty acids. An additional enhancement of the methane productivity was achieved by in-situ H2 dispersion. Microbial community composition was investigated using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing and results were correlated with process parameters. Hydrogenotrophic methanogens were the dominant archaea during the whole experiment at mesophilic and thermophilic conditions.
KW - Cheese whey
KW - Hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis
KW - In-situ H(2) dispersion
KW - Mesophilic microbial community
KW - Methane production rate
KW - Thermophilic microbial community
U2 - 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.12.084
DO - 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.12.084
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 30599281
VL - 275
SP - 375
EP - 385
JO - Bioresource Technology
JF - Bioresource Technology
SN - 0960-8524
ER -