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Updated: Jul 20, 2025

Evaluation of Integrated Anaerobic Digestion and Hydrothermal Carbonization for Bioenergy Production
Published on: June 15, 2014
From anaerobic digestion to single cell protein synthesis: A promising route beyond biogas utilization
Rui Li1, XiaoLei Fan2, YuFeng Jiang2
1Shandong Industrial Engineering Laboratory of Biogas Production and Utilization, Key Laboratory of Biofuels, Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, NO. 189 Songling Road, Qingdao 266101, PR China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, PR China; Shandong Energy Institute, Qingdao 266101, PR China; Qingdao New Energy Shandong Laboratory, Qingdao 266101, PR China.
Abstract:
The accumulation of a large amount of organic solid waste and the lack of sufficient protein supply worldwide are two major challenges caused by rapid population growth. Anaerobic digestion is the main force of organic waste treatment, and the high-value utilization of its products (biogas and digestate) has been widely concerned. These products can be used as nutrients and energy sources for microorganisms such as microalgae, yeast, methane-oxidizing bacteria(MOB), and hydrogen-oxidizing bacteria(HOB) to produce single cell protein(SCP), which contributes to the achievement of sustainable development goals. This new model of energy conversion can construct a bioeconomic cycle from waste to nutritional products, which treats waste without additional carbon emissions and can harvest high-value biomass. Techno-economic analysis shows that the SCP from biogas and digestate has higher profit than biogas electricity generation, and its production cost is lower than the SCP using special raw materials as the substrate. In this review, the case of SCP-rich microorganisms using anaerobic digestion products for growth was investigated. Some of the challenges faced by the process and the latest developments were analyzed, and their potential economic and environmental value was verified.
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