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Increase of methane formation by ethanol addition during continuous fermentation of biogas sludge

  • Bioenergy/Biofuels/Biochemicals
  • Published:
Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology

Abstract

Very recently, it was shown that the addition of acetate or ethanol led to enhanced biogas formation rates during an observation period of 24 h. To determine if increased methane production rates due to ethanol addition can be maintained over longer time periods, continuous reactors filled with biogas sludge were developed which were fed with the same substrates as the full-scale reactor from which the sludge was derived. These reactors are well reflected conditions of a full-scale biogas plant during a period of 14 days. When the fermenters were pulsed with 50–100 mM ethanol, biomethanation increased by 50–150 %, depending on the composition of the biogas sludge. It was also possible to increase methane formation significantly when 10–20 mM pure ethanol or ethanolic solutions (e.g. beer) were added daily. In summary, the experiments revealed that “normal” methane production continued to take place, but ethanol led to production of additional methane.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Joachim Clemens, Nadine Hörter, Stefanie Peters, Thomas Dickhaus and Thomas Fülling from the companies Bioreact GmbH and Bonalytic GmbH for technical support and analysis of physico-chemical parameters. We would also like to thank Elisabeth Schwab, Julia Feldhues and Lisa Nauroth for technical assistance. This work was supported by funds from Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF, project no. 03SF0421A).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Bonn, Institute for Microbiology and Biotechnology, Meckenheimer Allee 168, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Sarah Refai, Kati Wassmann, Sebastian van Helmont, Stefanie Berger & Uwe Deppenmeier

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  1. Sarah Refai
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  2. Kati Wassmann
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  3. Sebastian van Helmont
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  4. Stefanie Berger
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  5. Uwe Deppenmeier
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Uwe Deppenmeier.

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S. Refai and K. Wassmann authors contributed equally to this work.

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Refai, S., Wassmann, K., van Helmont, S. et al. Increase of methane formation by ethanol addition during continuous fermentation of biogas sludge. J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol 41, 1763–1772 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-014-1524-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10295-014-1524-2

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