Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Role of pine needle biochar in operation and stability of anaerobic processes

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Biodegradation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Utility of biochar addition in anaerobic processes for promoting direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) is demonstrated in this research. Biochar produced from pyrolysis of pine needle forest residue was used as conductive material for DIET. Three CSTRs were operated in parallel with and without biochar addition in fed-batch mode. Reactor without biochar which represented indirect interspecies electron transfer (IIET) exhibited wide variation in pH and VFA and took longer period during startup. All the rectors were operated at steady state with an OLR ranging from 0.5 to 1.75 kg-COD/m3.d. As OLR increased, performance of reactor without biochar resulted in rapid pH drop and increase in VFA, leading to its eventual failure at OLR of 1.75 kg-COD/m3.d. As against to this, performance of reactors with biochar remained robust and relatively unaffected at higher OLR values. Daily VFA accumulation from fed-batch mode always remained highest in reactor without biochar.

Graphical Abstract

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11

Similar content being viewed by others

Date availability

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary materials. OR The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author [Prof. Ajit P. Annachhatre] at a reasonable request.

References

  • Amonette JE, Joseph S (2009) Characteristics of biochar: microchemical properties. In: Lehmann J, Joseph S (eds) Biochar for environmental management science and technology. Earthscan, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Annachhatre AP (1996) Anaerobic treatment of industrial wastewaters. Resour Conserv Recycl 16(1–4):161–166

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Annachhatre AP, Bhamidimarri SMR (1992) Microbial attachment and growth in fixed-film reactors: process startup considerations. Biotechnol Adv 10(1):69–91

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baek G, Kim J, Lee C (2016) A long-term study on the effect of magnetite supplementation in continuous anaerobic digestion of dairy effluent–Enhancement in process performance and stability. Bioresour Technol 222:344–354

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baird R, Bridgewater L (2017) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 19th edn. American Public Health Association, Washington, D.C

    Google Scholar 

  • Balch WE, Fox GE, Magrum LJ, Woese CR, Wolfe RS (1979) Methanogens: reevaluation of a unique biological group. Microbiol Rev 43(2):260–296

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Bashir M, Mohan C, Tyagi S, Annachhatre AP (2022) Copper removal from aqueous solution using chemical precipitation and adsorption by Himalayan Pine Forest Residue as Biochar. Water Sci Technol 86(3):530–554

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boone DR, Johnson RL, Liu Y (1989) Diffusion of the interspecies electron carriers H2 and formate in methanogenic ecosystems and its implications in the measurement of Km for H2 or formate uptake. Appl Environ Microbiol 55:1735–1741

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Chacón FJ, Cayuela ML, Roig A, Sánchez-Monedero MA (2017) Understanding, measuring and tuning the electrochemical properties of biochar for environmental applications. Rev Environ Sci Bio/technol 16(4):695–715

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen S, Rotaru A-E, Liu F, Philips J, Woodard TL, Nevin KP, Lovley DR (2014a) Carbon cloth stimulates direct interspecies electron transfer in syntrophic co-cultures. Bioresour Technol 173:82–86

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chen S, Rotaru AE, Shrestha PM, Malvankar NS, Liu F, Fan W, Nevin KP, Lovley DR (2014b) Promoting interspecies electron transfer with biochar. Sci Rep 4(1):1–7

    Google Scholar 

  • Demirel B, Scherer P (2008) The roles of acetotrophic and hydrogenotrophic methanogens during anaerobic conversion of biomass to methane: a review. Rev Environ Sci Bio-Technol 7:173–190

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrer I, Garfí M, Uggetti E, Ferrer-Martí L, Calderon A, Velo E (2011) Biogas production in low-cost household digesters at the Peruvian Andes. Biomass Bioenerg 35(5):1668–1674

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Fukuzaki S, Nishio N, Shobayashi M, Nagai S (1990) Inhibition of the fermentation of propionate to methane by hydrogen, acetate, and propionate. Appl Environ Microbiol 56:719–723

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gabhi RS, Kirk DW, Jia CQ (2017) Preliminary investigation of electrical conductivity of monolithic biochar. Carbon 116:435–442

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Guskos N, Papadopoulos G, Likodimos V, Patapis S, Yarmis D, Przepiera A, Przepiera K, Majszczyk J, Typek J, Wabia M (2002) Photoacoustic, EPR and electrical conductivity investigations of three synthetic mineral pigments: Hematite, goethite and magnetite. Mater Res Bull 37:1051–1061

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hussain A, Parveen T, Kumar P, Mehrotra I (2009) Phenolic wastewater: effect of F/M on anaerobic degradation. Desalin Water Treat 2(1–3):260–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kato S, Hashimoto K, Watanabe K (2012) Methanogenesis facilitated by electric syntrophy via (semi) conductive iron-oxide minerals. Environ Microbiol 14:1646–1654

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lee J-Y, Lee S-H, Park H-D (2016) Enrichment of specific electro-active microorganisms and enhancement of methane production by adding granular activated carbon in anaerobic reactors. Bioresour Technol 205:205–212

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Li Y, Park SY, Zhu J (2011) Solid-state anaerobic digestion for methane production from organic waste. Renew Sust Energ Rev 15:821–826

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Li W, Zhang Y, Das L, Wang Y, Li M, Wanninayake N, Pu Y, Kim DY, Cheng YT, Ragauskas AJ, Shi J (2018) Linking lignin source with structural and electrochemical properties of lignin-derived carbon materials. RSC Adv 8(68):38721–38732

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Y, Whitman WB (2008) Metabolic, phylogenetic, and ecological diversity of the methanogenic archaea. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1125:171–189

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mansor AM, Lim JS, Ani FN, Hashim H, Ho WS (2019) Characteristics of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin of MD2 pineapple biomass. Chem Eng 72(1):79–84

    Google Scholar 

  • Martínez EJ, Rosas JG, Sotres A, Moran A, Cara J, Sánchez ME, Gómez X (2018) Codigestion of sludge and citrus peel wastes: evaluating the effect of biochar addition on microbial communities. Biochem Eng J 137:314–325

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCarty PL, Smith DP (1986) Anaerobic wastewater treatment. Environ Sci Technol 20(12):1200–1206

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mia S, Singh B, Dijkstra FA (2017) Aged biochar affects gross nitrogen mineralization and recovery; A 15 N study in two contrasting soils. Glob Change Biol Bioenergy 9:1196–1206

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Michele Ghidotti M, Daniele Fabbri D, Cristian Torri C, Sergio Piccinini S (2018) Determination of volatile fatty acids in digestate by solvent extraction with dimethyl carbonate and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Anal Chim Acta 1034:92–101

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mohan C, Bashir M, Annachhatre AP (2020) Anaerobic treatment of spentwash for recovery of clean energy. Mater Today 32:928–935

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Park JH, Kang HJ, Park KH, Park HD (2018) Direct interspecies electron transfer via conductive materials: a perspective for anaerobic digestion applications. Biores Technol 254:300–311

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pham CH, Triolo JM, Cu TT, Pedersen L, Sommer SG (2013) Validation and recommendation of methods to measure biogas production potential of animal manure. Asian Australas J Anim Sci 26(6):864–873

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Shanmugam SR, Adhikari S, Nam H, Sajib SK (2017) Effect of bio-char on methane generation from glucose and aqueous phase of algae liquefaction using mixed anaerobic cultures. Biomass Bioenerg. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2017.10.034

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen Y, Linville JL, Ignacio-de Leon PAA, Schoene RP, Urgun-Demirtas M (2016) Towards a sustainable paradigm of waste-to-energy process: Enhanced anaerobic digestion of sludge with woody biochar. J Clean Prod 135:1054–1064

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shi-yi L, Jian C (1992) The contribution of interspecies hydrogen transfer to the substrate removal in methanogenesis. Process Biochem 27(5):285–289

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shukla SK, Al Mushaiqri NRS, Al Subhi HM, Yoo K, Al Sadeq H (2020) Low-cost activated carbon production from organic waste and its utilization for wastewater treatment. Appl Water Sci 10:62

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Singh B, Dolk MM, Shen Q, Camps-Arbestain M (2017) Biochar pH electrical conductivity and liming potential. In: Singh B, Camps-Arbestain M, Lehmann J (eds) Biochar: a guide to analytical methods. CRC Press, Boca Raton, p 23

    Google Scholar 

  • Sohi SP, Krull E, Lopez-Capel E, Bol R (2010) A review of biochar and its use and function in soil. Adv Agron 105:47–82

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Summers ZM, Fogarty HE, Leang C, Franks AE, Malvankar NS, Lovley DR (2010) Direct exchange of electrons within aggregates of an evolved syntrophic coculture of anaerobic bacteria. Science 330:1413–1415

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tyagi S, Bashir M, Mohan C, Annachhatre AP (2022) Characterization of pine residues from himalayan region and its use as heavy metal adsorbent. Water Air Soil Pollut 233:226

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wambugu CW, Rene ER, Van de Vossenberg J, Dupont C, Van Hullebusch ED (2019) Role of biochar in anaerobic digestion based biorefinery for food waste. Front Energy Res 7:14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang S, Gao B, Zimmerman AR, Li Y, Ma L, Harris WG, Migliaccio KW (2015) Physicochemical and sorptive properties of biochars derived from woody and herbaceous biomass. Chemosphere 134:257–262

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Weiland P (2010) Biogas production: current state and perspectives. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 85(4):849–860

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Xing J, Xu G, Li G (2021) Comparison of pyrolysis process, various fractions and potential soil applications between sewage sludge-based biochars and lignocellulose-based biochars. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf 208:111756

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Xu S, He C, Luo L, Lü F, He P, Cui L (2015) Comparing activated carbon of different particle sizes on enhancing methane generation in upflow anaerobic digester. Biores Technol 196:606–612

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang M, Zang L (2019) A review of interspecies electron transfer in anaerobic digestion. IOP Conference Series 310(4):042026

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhao Z, Zhang Y, Woodard TL, Nevin KP, Lovley DR (2015) Enhancing syntrophic metabolism in up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors with conductive carbon materials. Biores Technol 191:140–145

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhao Z, Zhang Y, Li Y, Dang Y, Zhu T, Quan X (2017) Potentially shifting from interspecies hydrogen transfer to direct interspecies electron transfer for syntrophic metabolism to resist acidic impact with conductive carbon cloth. Chem Eng J 313:10–18

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zhu Y, Zhao Z, Yang Y, Zhang Y (2020) Dual roles of zero-valent iron in dry anaerobic digestion: Enhancing interspecies hydrogen transfer and direct interspecies electron transfer. Waste Manag 118:481–490

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

These investigations were carried out when Mr. Chander Mohan was a doctoral student at Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, India. These investigations were led through cooperation under Ministry of Human resource and development (MHRD), Government of India (GoI). This help is appreciatively recognized.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Chander Mohan

    Present address: Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, 175005, India

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, 175005, India

    Ajit Annachhatre

Authors
  1. Chander Mohan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ajit Annachhatre
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

CM: conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft, writing—review & editing. APA: supervision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ajit Annachhatre.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Mohan, C., Annachhatre, A. Role of pine needle biochar in operation and stability of anaerobic processes. Biodegradation 34, 53–71 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-022-10004-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-022-10004-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation