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Selective Enrichment of a Methanol-Utilizing Consortium Using Pulp and Paper Mill Waste Streams

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Abstract

Efficient utilization of carbon inputs is critical to the economic viability of the current forest products sector. Input carbon losses occur in various locations within a pulp mill, including losses as volatile organics and wastewater. Opportunities exist to capture this carbon in the form of value-added products such as biodegradable polymers. Waste-activated sludge from a pulp mill wastewater facility was enriched for 80 days for a methanol-utilizing consortium with the goal of using this consortium to produce biopolymers from methanol-rich pulp mill waste streams. Five enrichment conditions were utilized: three high-methanol streams from the kraft mill foul condensate system, one methanol-amended stream from the mill wastewater plant, and one methanol-only enrichment. Enrichment reactors were operated aerobically in sequencing batch mode at neutral pH and 25°C with a hydraulic residence time and a solids retention time of 4 days. Non-enriched waste activated sludge did not consume methanol or reduce chemical oxygen demand. With enrichment, however, the chemical oxygen demand reduction over 24-h feed/decant cycles ranged from 79 to 89%, and methanol concentrations dropped below method detection limits. Neither the non-enriched waste-activated sludge nor any of the enrichment cultures accumulated polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) under conditions of nitrogen sufficiency. Similarly, the non-enriched waste activated sludge did not accumulate PHAs under nitrogen-limited conditions. By contrast, enriched cultures accumulated PHAs to nearly 14% on a dry weight basis under nitrogen-limited conditions. This indicates that selectively enriched pulp mill waste activated sludge can serve as an inoculum for PHA production from methanol-rich pulp mill effluents.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Industrial Technologies Program, Forest Products Industries of the Future, under DOE-NE Idaho Operations Office Contract DE-AC07-05ID14517. The authors are grateful to Katherine Wiedeman and James Flanders of P. H. Glatfelter for providing access to their facility, the activated sludge, and the foul condensates. The authors also thank Cathy Rae of the INL for performing the PHA analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California at Davis, 1 Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Gregory R. Mockos & Frank J. Loge

  2. Biological Sciences Department, Idaho National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, ID, 83415-2203, USA

    William A. Smith & David N. Thompson

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  1. Gregory R. Mockos
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  2. William A. Smith
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  3. Frank J. Loge
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Correspondence to David N. Thompson.

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Mockos, G.R., Smith, W.A., Loge, F.J. et al. Selective Enrichment of a Methanol-Utilizing Consortium Using Pulp and Paper Mill Waste Streams. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 148, 211–226 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-007-8028-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-007-8028-8

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