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Methanogenic diversity changes in full-scale anaerobic digesters by co-digestion of food waste and sewage sludge

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Abstract

This study aims to investigate the methanogenic community of anaerobic mono-digestion of sewage sludge (SL-digester) and co-digestion of sewage sludge with food waste (co-digester). The volatile solids, chemical oxygen demands, organic fractions, and ions in influent wastewater of digester can affect both SL-only digester and co-digester. An increase of [NH4+] in the anaerobic digester affected organic removal efficiency and microbial diversity. Methanobrevibacter smithii (33.8 ± 14.7%), Methanoculleus receptaculi (12.3 ± 5.3%), Methanolinea mesophila (9.5 ± 4.1%), and Methanospirillum hungatei (5.5 ± 9.2%) were dominant in every digester. These methanogens had a significant correlation with physicochemical properties (VFA and NH4+) or methanogens depending on their microbial metabolic pathway such as propionate degradation or ammonia resistance. This research would be used as a guideline to solve the complexity of full-scale plants’ operation and reveal the ‘black-box’ of anaerobic digestion.

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Abbreviations

AD:

Anaerobic digestion

AcoD:

Anaerobic co-digestion

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

CSTR:

Continuous tank reactors

FW:

Food waste

OTUs:

Operational taxonomic units

SL:

Sewage sludge

VFAs:

Volatile fatty acids

VS:

Volatile solid

WWTPs:

Wastewater treatment plants

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Human Resource Program for Sustainable Environment in the 4th Industrial Revolution Society grant (BrainKorea21 Four) funded by the Ministry of Education (MoE) of the Korean government (No. 5199990214041). This research was financially supported by the Ministry of Environment of the Korean government as Waste to Energy-Recycling Human Resource Development Project (No. YL-WE-21-002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Environmental Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), 77 Cheongam-Ro, Nam-Gu, Pohang, Gyeongbuk, 37673, Republic of Korea

    Sangmin Kim, Eunji Kim & Seokhwan Hwang

  2. Institute for Convergence Research and Education in Advanced Technology (I-CREATE), Yonsei University, 85, Songdogwahak-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, 21983, Republic of Korea

    Seokhwan Hwang

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  1. Sangmin Kim
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  2. Eunji Kim
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Contributions

Conceptualization: SK; methodology: SK; formal analysis and investigation: SK, and EK; writing—original draft preparation: SK; writing—review and editing: EK; visualization: SK; software: SK; validation: SK, and EK; funding acquisition: SH; supervision: SH.

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Correspondence to Seokhwan Hwang.

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Kim, S., Kim, E. & Hwang, S. Methanogenic diversity changes in full-scale anaerobic digesters by co-digestion of food waste and sewage sludge. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 24, 2669–2676 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-022-01482-x

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