Bioaugmentation with an anaerobic fungus in a two-stage process for biohydrogen and biogas production using corn silage and cattail

Abstract

Bioaugmentation with an anaerobic fungus, Piromyces rhizinflata YM600, was evaluated in an anaerobic two-stage system digesting corn silage and cattail. Comparable methane yields of 328.8±16.8mLg−1VS and 295.4±14.5mLg−1VS and hydrogen yields of 59.4±4.1mLg−1VS and 55.6±6.7mLg−1VS were obtained for unaugmented and bioaugmented corn silage, respectively. Similar CH4 yields of 101.0±4.8mLg−1VS and 104±19.1mLg−1VS and a low H2 yield (<1mLg−1VS) were obtained for unaugmented and bioaugmented cattail, respectively. However, bioaugmentation resulted in an initial increase in CH4 and H2 production rates and also increased volatile fatty acid degradation rate for both substrates. Our study demonstrates the potential of bioaugmentation with anaerobic fungus for improving the digestibility of lignocellulose substrates for biogas and biohydrogen production.