Resilience towards organic load and activated sludge variations in co-fermentation for carboxylic acid production

Two perturbations were investigated in acidogenic co-fermentation of waste activated sludge (WAS) and food waste in continuous mesophilic fermenters: increasing the organic loading rate (OLR) and changing the WAS. A control reactor maintained an OLR of 11 gVS/(L·d), while a test reactor had a prolon...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Perez-Esteban, N., Vives-Egea, Júlia, Dosta Parras, Joan, Astals Garcia, Sergi, Peces, Miriam
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Recursos:Universidad de Oviedo (UNIOVI)
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/225054
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/225054
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Bioreactors
Metabolisme microbià
Microbial metabolism
Descrição
Resumo:Two perturbations were investigated in acidogenic co-fermentation of waste activated sludge (WAS) and food waste in continuous mesophilic fermenters: increasing the organic loading rate (OLR) and changing the WAS. A control reactor maintained an OLR of 11 gVS/(L·d), while a test reactor had a prolonged OLR change to 18 gVS/(L·d). For each OLR, two WAS were studied. The change in OLR led to differentiated fermentation product profile without compromising the fermentation yields (∼300 mgCOD/gVS). At 11 gVS/(L·d), the product profile was dominated by acetic, butyric, and propionic acids while at 18 gVS/(L·d) it shifted to acetic acid, ethanol, and caproic acid. Reverting the OLR also reverted the fermentation profile. The biomass immigration with the WAS changed the fermentation microbial structure and introduced acetic acid-consuming methanogens, which growth was only delayed by the OLR increase. Microbial monitoring and post-fermentation tests can be used for early detection of acetic acid-consuming events.