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Enrichment of waste sewage sludge for enhancing methane production from cellulose
Qili Zhu1, Lichun Dai2, Yanwei Wang2
1Department of Biological Functions Engineering, Graduate School of Life Science and Systems Engineering, Kyushu Institute of Technology, 2-4 Hibikino, Wakamatsu, Kitakyushu 808-0196, Japan; Biomass Energy Technology Research Centre, Key Laboratory of Development and Application of Rural Renewable Energy (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Biogas Institute of Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Section 4-13, Renmin South Road, Chengdu 610041, PR China.
Abstract:
Low ability of waste sewage sludge to degrade cellulose is observed due to its less cellulolytic bacteria content. The enrichment of sewage sludge in the absence or presence of carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) was conducted to improve anaerobic digestion (AD) of cellulose in this study. Compared to initial sewage sludge (IS), enriched sludge without CMC addition (ES) displayed 69.81% higher CH4 yield and about 1.7-fold greater anaerobic biodegradation of cellulose. In particular, bacterial and archaeal diversities in samples inoculated with ES were significantly altered, with Ruminiclostridium and Methanobacterium as the predominant genera. Enriched sludge with CMC addition (ESC) displayed enhanced methane production at initial cellulose fermentation but showed no distinct difference compared with the control after incubation 24 days. These findings suggest that enrichment of waste sewage sludge without CMC addition is more beneficial for promoting AD of cellulose, providing a novel insight for efficient energy utilization of lignocellulosic wastes.
