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An Insight into the Anaerobic Co-digestion of Municipal Solid Waste and Food Waste: Influence of Co-substrate Mixture Ratio and Substrate to Inoculum Ratio on Biogas Production

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Abstract

The unbalanced nutrients of municipal solid waste (MSW), particularly high carbon contents, were regarded as a major limiting factor to anaerobic digestion process. In this study, the addition of MSW in food waste (FW) feedstock to have a balanced C/N ratio was studied. Different co-substrate mixtures with C/N ratio of 20 to 40 were subjected to anaerobic batch experiment at lab scale, under mesophilic conditions. The biogas production decreased with the increase in C/N ratio due to insufficient availability of organic nitrogen for anaerobic microbial growth. Specific biogas and methane yields were observed to be 827 and 474.44 mL g−1VS, respectively, with volatile solids (VS) reduction rate of 88%, at C/N ratio of 20. Furthermore, the effect of the substrate to inoculum (S/I) ratio on digester performance was also studied. The biogas production decreased with the increase in S/I ratio due to the formation of more volatile fatty acids (VFAs) which led to decrease in pH and accumulated unionized ammonia-N. Specific biogas and methane yields were recorded to be 655 and 410.20 mL g−1VS, with 64% rate of biodegradability at S/I ratio of 0.5. Kinetics and statistics study showed that the higher S/I ratio could lead to VFA accumulation and result in low methane yield.

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Funding

This study received funding from the National “Twelfth Five-Year” plan for Science and Technology Support (2014BAC24BO1-02) and the National “Twelfth-Five Year” plan for Science and Technology Support (2015BAD21B03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100029, People’s Republic of China

    Muhammad Shahbaz, Dexun Zou, Rashid Mustafa Korai & XiuJin Li

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering Technology, Government College University, Faisalabad, 38000, Pakistan

    Muhammad Ammar

  3. Department of Petroleum & Gas Engineering, Dawood University of Engineering & Technology, New M.A. Jinnah Road, Karachi, 74800, Pakistan

    Rashid Mustafa Korai

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  1. Muhammad Shahbaz
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  2. Muhammad Ammar
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  3. Dexun Zou
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Correspondence to Muhammad Ammar or XiuJin Li.

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Shahbaz, M., Ammar, M., Zou, D. et al. An Insight into the Anaerobic Co-digestion of Municipal Solid Waste and Food Waste: Influence of Co-substrate Mixture Ratio and Substrate to Inoculum Ratio on Biogas Production. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 187, 1356–1370 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-018-2891-3

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