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Producing Biogas from Rice Straw: Kinetic Analysis and Microbial Community Dynamics

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Abstract

Biogas production by anaerobic digestion is an attractive approach to producing clean fuel biomethane and reducing environmental pollution. However, many fluctuations in production occur during a batch digestion period. This study investigated the dynamics of microbial communities involved in biogas production during a 20-day digestion of rice straw (RS) at 35 °C. The results demonstrated roughly consistent trends in biogas and methane production and revealed distinct stages of production. The lowest and peak methane yields were 82 ± 19.9 mL/(L•day) at day 3 and 328.5 ± 0.9 mL/(L•day) at day 8, respectively, whereas most (97.1%) of the methane was produced in the first 14 days of digestion. Ultimately, the biogas potential of RS reached 393.2 ± 13.6 mL/g added volatile solids (CH4% = 57.1%), and the logistic model best fitted actual methane production compared to the modified Gompertz, first-order kinetic, and Cone models. The microbial communities at different critical stages are a clear reflection of the biochemical dynamics in digesters. The bacterial genera Bacteroides and Clostridium_sensu_stricto_1 were the dominant microorganisms at the early stage of digestion, while the archaeal genus Methanosarcina was significantly more abundant at the peak stage of methane production than at other times during the digestion. This study demonstrates the detailed micro- and macro-conditions that exist during the fluctuating and constant digestion of RS, which will benefit industrial applications during the anaerobic digestion of RS.

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All the data and materials are available with the corresponding author and may be provided on request.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Jushang Testing & Analysis Center for providing elemental measurements. The authors also thank the International Science Editing for providing language assistance.

Funding

This research was financially supported by the Central Government Directs Special Funds for Local Science and Technology Development Projects (Grant No. ZY1949015) and the Scientific Research and Technology Development Program of Guangxi (Grant No. 1644901).

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  1. Shiyou Pan and Qiangqiang Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-bioresources, Guangxi Microorganism and Enzyme Research Center of Engineering Technology, College of Life Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning, 530004, Guangxi, China

    Shiyou Pan, Qiangqiang Liu, Chuan Wen, Zhenchong Li, Liqin Du & Yutuo Wei

  2. Guangxi Academy of Sciences, Nanning, 530007, Guangxi, China

    Shiyou Pan & Zhenchong Li

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  1. Shiyou Pan
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Contributions

YTW and ZCL conceived and designed this research. SYP, QQL, and CW performed the experiments. SYP, QQL, CW, and LQD analyzed and interpreted the data. SYP and QQL composed the manuscript. ZCL and YTW improved the manuscript. All authors reviewed and revised the manuscript prior to publication.

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Correspondence to Yutuo Wei.

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Pan, S., Liu, Q., Wen, C. et al. Producing Biogas from Rice Straw: Kinetic Analysis and Microbial Community Dynamics. Bioenerg. Res. 14, 1338–1348 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-020-10226-4

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