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Effect of biochar on anaerobic co-digestion performance and microbial communities of hulless barley straw and pig manure

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Abstract

Biochar has been reported as an effective additive to enhance methane production during anaerobic digestion due to its large specific surface area, ability to enrich microorganisms, electrical conductivity, and low cost. However, it is not clear whether these effects are applicable to the anaerobic co-digestion (co-AD) of hulless barley straw and pig manure. Under medium temperature batch anaerobic digestion, the enhancing effects of different concentrations of biochar on co-AD of hulless barley straw and pig manure were investigated. The results show the addition of biochar improved the methane production performance of the co-AD system, and a maximum cumulative methane production of 322.94 mL/g VS was obtained when 4 g/L biochar was added to the system. This value was 17.73% higher than that of the control (CK), without biochar supplementation. The addition of biochar produced certain economic benefits. The addition of biochar increased the relative abundance of bacterial groups, such as unclassified Anaerolineaceae, Clostridium sensu stricto 1, and Syner-01, and acetate trophic methanogens, such as Methanothrix and Methanosarcina, but it did not promote the growth of hydrogenotrophic methanogens. Notably, the addition of biochar increased the electron transport system (ETS) activity of the co-AD and enhanced the enrichment of microorganisms involved in direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET), such as unclassified Anaerolineaceae, Clostridium sensu stricto 1, Methanothrix, and Methanosarcina. This may represent one of the key reasons behind the observed increase in methane production.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Applied Basic Research Program of Qinghai Province (No. 2024-ZJ-778).

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  1. Hailin Liu and Zhiwei Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Science and Technology Department, Qinghai University, Xining, 810016, Qinghai, China

    Hailin Liu

  2. Qinghai Key Laboratory of Vegetable Genetics and Physiology, Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Qinghai University, Xining, 810016, Qinghai, China

    Zhiwei Zhang & Rui Han

  3. Laboratory for Research and Utilization of Qinghai Tibet Plateau Germplasm Resources, Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Qinghai University, Xining, 810016, Qinghai, China

    Zhiwei Zhang & Rui Han

  4. Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Qinghai University, Xining, 810016, Qinghai, China

    Zhiwei Zhang, Rui Han & Zhengpeng Li

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  1. Hailin Liu
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Contributions

Hailin Liu: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, funding support. Zhiwei Zhang: conceptualization, data curation, methodology, validation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, language. Rui Han: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, validation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing, language, funding support. Zhengpeng Li: conceptualization, methodology.

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Correspondence to Rui Han.

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Liu, H., Zhang, Z., Han, R. et al. Effect of biochar on anaerobic co-digestion performance and microbial communities of hulless barley straw and pig manure. Biomass Conv. Bioref. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-024-05717-9

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