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Updated: Mar 3, 2026
Continuously-stirred Anaerobic Digester to Convert Organic Wastes into Biogas: System Setup and Basic Operation
Published on: July 13, 2012
In-situ sludge pretreatment in a single-stage anaerobic digester
Yun Chen1, Keke Xiao2, Xie Jiang2
1Advanced Environmental Biotechnology Centre, Nanyang Environment and Water Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University, 1 Cleantech Loop, Singapore 637141, Singapore; CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutant Conversion, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
This study aimed to develop an in-situ sludge pretreatment method by increasing the temperature from thermophilic to extreme thermophilic condition in a single-stage anaerobic digester. The results revealed that a stable performance was obtained within the temperature range of 55-65°C, and the maximum methane yield of 208.51±13.66mL/g VS was obtained at 65°C. Moreover, the maximum extent of hydrolysis (33%) and acidification (27.1%) was also observed at 65°C. However, further increase of temperature to 70°C did not improve the organic conversion efficiency. Microbial community analysis revealed that Coprothermobacter, highly related to acetate oxidisers, appeared to be the abundant bacterial group at higher temperature. A progressive shift in methanogenic members from Methanosarcina to Methanothermobacter was observed upon increasing the temperature. This work demonstrated single-stage sludge digestion system can be successfully established at high temperature (65°C) with stable performance, which can eliminate the need of conventional thermophilic pretreatment step.
