Abstract
Toilet revolution is driven by the urgent need for solutions to improve sanitation and access to high-quality organic fertilizer for rural areas, which is tagged “resource recovery from human waste.” This study provides a possible solution via semi-solid anaerobic co-digestion (Aco-D) of source-separated fecal slag (SFS) and food waste (FW) (3:1). A comprehensive investigation of Aco-D at different inoculum/substrate ratios (ISR) was conducted. Results revealed that the reactor with ISR of 1:4 reached the highest methane yield (255.05 mL/gVS), which enhanced Methanosaetaceae, Methanomicrobiales, and Syntrophomonas. Additionally, the reactor with low feedstock (ISR of 1:2) showed higher removal efficiency of antibiotics (74.75%). The ecological risk of digestate decreased to an insignificant hazard quotient level, and the contents of nutrients and heavy metals were in line with the standard requirement for fertilizer. This study could serve as an alternative technology to support further research in SFS management and digestate utilization as fertilizer.
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Acknowledgements
We are also grateful to all Wastewater Treatment and Nutrient Recovery Research Group members for their support during the research period. We also thank Consolata Nanjala, Nan Lv, Ruming Wang, Junjie Li, and Yanlin Li for their valuable support and suggestions.
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The authors received financial support from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Contract No. 2018YFC1903205).
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Hamza Hassan Yusuf and Zhi-Long Ye were responsible for the study’s conceptualization and design. Hamza Hassan Yusuf, Xiaofang Pan, Guanjing Cai, Jiasheng Cai, Xuewei Huang, and Zhi-Long Ye performed material preparation, data collection, data analysis, and data validation. Hamza Hassan Yusuf wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and all authors commented on the previous version of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Zhi-Long Ye was in charge of supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.
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Yusuf, H.H., Pan, X., Cai, G. et al. Semi-solid anaerobic co-digestion of source-separated fecal slag and food waste: focusing on methane production, ecological risk assessment, and quality evaluation as fertilizer. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 66578–66590 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20249-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20249-3