Enhanced Anaerobic Digestion of Long Chain Fatty Acid by Adding Magnetite and Carbon Nanotubes

oleh: Alsayed Mostafa, Seongwon Im, Young-Chae Song, Seoktae Kang, Dong-Hoon Kim

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2020-02-01

Deskripsi

This study investigated the impact of stimulating direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET), by supplementing nano-sized magnetite (nFe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>, 0.5 g Fe/g VSS) and carbon nanotubes (CNT, 1 g/L), in anaerobic digestion of oleic acid (OA) at various concentrations (0.10 - 4.00 g chemical oxygen demand(COD)/L). Both supplementations could enhance CH<sub>4</sub> production, and its beneficial impact increased with increased OA concentration. The biggest improvements of 114% and 165% compared to the control were achieved by nFe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> and CNT, respectively, at OA of 4 g COD/L. The enhancement can be attributed to the increased sludge conductivity: 7.1 &#177; 0.5 (control), 12.5 &#177; 0.8 (nFe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>-added), and 15.7 &#177; 1.1 &#181;S/cm (CNT-supplemented). Dissolved iron concentration, released from nFe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub>, seemed to have a negligible role in improving CH<sub>4</sub> production. The excretion of electron shuttles, i.e., humic-like substances and protein-like substances, were found to be stimulated by supplementing nFe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> and CNT. Microbial diversity was found to be simplified under DIET-stimulating conditions, whereby five genera accounted for 88% of the total sequences in the control, while more than 82% were represented by only two genera (<i>Methanotrix concilli</i> and <i>Methanosarcina flavescens</i>) by supplementing nFe<sub>3</sub>O<sub>4</sub> and CNT. In addition, the abudance of electro-active bacteria such as <i>Syntrophomonas zehnderi </i>was significantly increased from 17% to around 45%.