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Effects of different pretreatment methods on biogas production and microbial community in anaerobic digestion of wheat straw

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Abstract

The pretreatment of wheat straw has been recognized to be an essential step prior to anaerobic digestion, owing to the high abundance of lignocellulosic materials. In order to choose economical and effective techniques for the disposal of wheat straw, effects of five pretreatment methods including acid, alkali, co-pretreatment of acid and alkali, CaO2, and liquid digestate of municipal sewage sludge on anaerobic digestion of wheat straw were investigated by analyzing biogas production and organic matter degradation in the study. The results showed that among these pretreatment methods, the methane yield was highest in the liquid digestate pretreated-wheat straw with 112.6 mL gTS−1, followed by the acid, alkali, and CaO2 pretreatments, and the lowest was observed in the co-pretreatment of acid and alkali. Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the microbial communities in the anaerobic digesters revealed that the genera Ruminiclostridium including Ruminiclostridium and Ruminiclostridium 1, Hydrogenispora, and Capriciproducens were the main hydrolytic bacteria, acidogenic bacteria, and acetogenic bacteria, respectively, in the anaerobic digesters. Capriciproducens and Hydrogenispora dominated in the first and the later stages, respectively, in the anaerobic digesters, which could work as indicators of the anaerobic co-digestion stage of sludge and wheat straw. The total solid and SO42−-S contents of the solid digestate and the NH4+-N concentration of the liquid digestate had a significant influence on the microbial community in the digesters. These findings indicated that liquid digestate pretreatment was a potential option to improve the anaerobic digestion of wheat straw, due to the low cost without additional chemical agents.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The sequences obtained in this study have been deposited in the NCBI database under the accession number SUB7865076.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang province with Grant No. LZ20E080002 and Key R&D Programs of Zhejiang Province (2018C03G2011238), National Natural Science Foundation of China with Grants No. 41671245, 91851109, and 41911530193.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Ya-Ru Kang, Jing Wang, Yi-Xuan Chu & Guangming Tian

  2. Institute of Environment, Resource, Soil and Fertilizer, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, 310021, China

    Yao Su

  3. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Recycling, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, 310012, China

    Ruo He

  4. College of Environmental and Resource Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China

    Ruo He

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  1. Ya-Ru Kang
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Contributions

YRK performed the research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper. YS, JW, and YXC analyzed data and wrote the paper. GT conceived of the study and wrote the paper. RH designed the study and was a major contributor in writing the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ruo He.

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Kang, YR., Su, Y., Wang, J. et al. Effects of different pretreatment methods on biogas production and microbial community in anaerobic digestion of wheat straw. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 51772–51785 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14296-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14296-5

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