Enhanced methane production during long-term UASB operation at high organic loads as enabled by the immobilized Fungi

doi:10.1007/s11783-021-1505-4

Front. Environ. Sci. Eng.

2022, Vol. 16

Issue (6) : 71 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1505-4

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Enhanced methane production during long-term UASB operation at high organic loads as enabled by the immobilized Fungi

Qiong Guo¹, Zhichao Yang¹, Bingliang Zhang¹, Ming Hua^1,², Changhong Liu³, Bingcai Pan^1,²(

)

¹. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
². Research Center for Environmental Nanotechnology (ReCENT), Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China
³. School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Nanjing 210023, China

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Abstract

• Fungi enable the constant UASB operation even at OLR of 25.0 kg/(m³×d).

• The COD removal of 85.9% and methane production of 5.6 m³/(m³×d) are achieved.

• Fungi inhibit VFAs accumulation and favor EPS generation and sludge granulation.

• Fungi enrich methanogenic archaea and promote methanogenic pathways.

Anaerobic digestion is widely applied in organic wastewater treatment coupled with bioenergy production, and how to stabilize its work at the high organic loading rate (OLR) remains a challenge. Herein, we proposed a new strategy to address this issue via involving the synergetic role of the Aspergillus sydowii 8L-9-F02 immobilized beads (AEBs). A long-term (210-day) continuous-mode operation indicated that the upflow anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor (R1, with AEBs added) could achieve the OLR as high as 25.0 kg/(m³×d), whereas the control reactor (R0, with AEBs free) could only tolerate the maximum OLR of 13.3 kg/(m³×d). Remarkably, much higher COD removal (85.9% vs 23.9%) and methane production (5.4 m³/(m³×d) vs 2.2 m³/(m³×d)) were achieved in R1 than R0 at the OLR of 25.0 kg/(m³×d). Such favorable effect results from the facts that fungi inhibit VFAs accumulation, favor the pH stabilization, promote the generation of more extracellular polymeric substance, and enhance the sludge granulation and settleability. Moreover, fungi may enhance the secretion of acetyl-coenzyme A, a key compound in converting organic matters to CO₂. In addition, fungi are favorable to enrich methanogenic archaea even at high OLR, improving the activity of acetate kinase and coenzyme F₄₂₀ for more efficient methanogenic pathway. This work may shed new light on how to achieve higher OLR and methane production in anaerobic digestion of wastewater.

Keywords Anaerobic digestion Fungi Methane production High OLR Microbial community

Corresponding Author(s): Bingcai Pan

Issue Date: 23 September 2021

Cite this article:

Qiong Guo,Zhichao Yang,Bingliang Zhang, et al. Enhanced methane production during long-term UASB operation at high organic loads as enabled by the immobilized Fungi[J]. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng., 2022, 16(6): 71.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-021-1505-4
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2022/V16/I6/71

Fig.1 Long-term operation of R0 (control) and R1 (with AEBs addition) in terms of (A) COD removal efficiency, (B) CH₄ generation, (C) the produced gas composition (CO₂ and CH₄ percentage), and (D) effluent VFAs concentration under otherwise identical condition.

Fig.2 (A) Morphology and (B) SEM image of AEBs sampled from R1 on Day 100, and the SEM images of the anaerobic sludge samples from R0 (C, Day 160; E, Day 200) and R1 (D, Day 160; F, Day 200).

Fig.3 (A) Particle size diffusion of granular sludge and (B) its settleability under different OLRs. Samples were collected from R₀ and R₁ on Day 20, 50, 100, 160 and 200, both featuring different OLRs. (A) Whiskers that protrude out of the box indicate 1.5 × IQR (interquartile range). The boundary of the box indicates the range of 25% and 75%. The line in the middle of the box marks the median and the hollow circle marks the mean. Sample points that fall outside 1.5 × IQR are possible outliers. 50<n<65, ***, p<0.001. (B) 50<n<70.

Fig.4 Variations in the (A) protein and (B) polysaccharides contents in EPS throughout the long-term UASB operation along with the increasing OLR.

Fig.5 FT-IR spectra of sludge mixtures in (A) R0 (control) and (B) R1 (AEBs added) at different OLRs. Significant differences are labeled by shading in the spectra.

Fig.6 Activities of (A) cellulase, (B) acetate kinase, and (C) coenzyme F₄₂₀ in R0 (control) and R1 (AEBs added) in different operation periods. (Error bars represent standard deviations of triplicate tests).

Fig.7 The distribution of bacteria and archaea abundances at genus level in the seeded sludge, R0 (control) and R1 (AEBs added) at different OLRs. (The dotted line marks the boundary between bacteria and archaea).

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