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Kinetic modelling and synergistic impact evaluation for the anaerobic co-digestion of distillers’ grains and food waste by ethanol pre-fermentation

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Abstract

The anaerobic digestion of food waste (FW) often leads to acidification inhibition owing to rapid biodegradation, resulting in system instability. In this study, distillers’ grains (DG) and food waste were mixed in accordance with volatile solid (VS) ratios of 0.9:0.1, 0.85:0.15, 0.8:0.2, and 0.7:0.3. The experimental groups adopted yeast to conduct ethanol pre-fermentation and then inoculated sludge to perform anaerobic digestion, while the control groups conducted anaerobic digestion without pre-treatment. Results showed that the experimental groups had lower propionic acid concentrations; higher alkalinities, pH values and methane production rates and shorter stagnation periods than the control groups regardless of the mixing ratio. Specifically, at the DG/FW ratio of 0.7:0.3, compared with the control group, the propionic acid concentration was reduced by 59.6%, the alkalinity was increased by 41.7%. Even under high organic loading, the propionic acid and VFA did not accumulate in the system after ethanol pre-fermentation, and the anaerobic digestion system remained stable. At DG/FW ratios of 0.9:0.1 and 0.85:0.15, a synergistic effect was observed during the co-digestion of DG and FW. And, the synergistic effect of EP was relatively high, especially when the DG/FW ratio was 0.9:0.1, and methane yield increased by 26.8%.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 51578063) and the National Key Technology R&D Program (2014BAC24B01).

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Author notes

  1. Miao Yu and Ming Gao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Miao Yu, Ming Gao, Yuanyuan Ren, Chuanfu Wu, Hongzhi Ma & Qunhui Wang

  2. Department of Architectural Engineering, Handan Polytechnic College, Handan, Hebei, 056001, People’s Republic of China

    Lihong Wang

  3. Beijing Key Laboratory of Resource-oriented Treatment of Industrial Pollutants, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Chuanfu Wu, Hongzhi Ma & Qunhui Wang

Authors
  1. Miao Yu
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  2. Ming Gao
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Correspondence to Hongzhi Ma.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Yu, M., Gao, M., Wang, L. et al. Kinetic modelling and synergistic impact evaluation for the anaerobic co-digestion of distillers’ grains and food waste by ethanol pre-fermentation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 30281–30291 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3027-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3027-6

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