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Updated: May 10, 2026

Continuously-stirred Anaerobic Digester to Convert Organic Wastes into Biogas: System Setup and Basic Operation
Published on: July 13, 2012
Volatile fatty acids production from kitchen waste slurry using anaerobic membrane bioreactor via alkaline
Xiaolan Xiao1, Hongmei Hu2, Xingyao Meng3
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Anaerobic Biotechnology, School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, PR China; Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center of Technology and Material of Water Treatment, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Suzhou 215009, PR China.
Abstract:
In this study, a pilot-scale anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) was developed to continuously produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from kitchen waste slurry under an alkaline condition. The alkaline fermentation effectively suppressed methanogenesis, thus achieving high VFAs production of 60.3 g/L. Acetic acid, propionic acid, and butyric acid accounted for over 95.0 % of the total VFAs. The VFAs yield, productivity, and chemical oxygen demand (COD) recovery efficiency reached 0.5 g/g-CODinfluent, 6.0 kg/m3/d, and 62.8 %, respectively. Moreover, the CODVFAs/CODeffluent ratio exceeded 96.0 %, and the CODVFAs/NH3-N ratio through ammonia distillation reached up to 192.5. The microbial community was reshaped during the alkaline fermentation with increasing salinity. The membrane fouling of the AnMBR was alleviated by chemical cleaning and sludge discharge, and membrane modules displayed a sustained filtration performance. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that high-quality VFAs could be efficiently produced from kitchen waste slurry using an AnMBR process via alkaline fermentation.
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