Biogas production and microbial community properties during anaerobic digestion of corn stover at different temperatures

Abstract

Temperature has different effects on anaerobic digestion (AD) of various biomasses, which could bring out changes in microbial communities. The relationship between microbial community and methane production at 35 °C (R35), 38 °C (R38), 41 °C (R41), and 44 °C (R44) was analyzed during AD of corn stover (CS). The results showed that the daily biogas and methane production from R44 were 16.6%–42.4% and 16.2%–40.6% higher than yields from R35, R38 and R41, respectively. The abundance of Bacteroidetes in R35, R38 and R41 was relatively close (30.70%–39.36%), which was low in R44 (16.00%). The abundance of Firmicutes in R35 was 32.30%, however, Firmicutes was the most dominant phylum at R44 (66.58%). The abundance of Miscellaneous_Crenarchaeotic_Group and Euryarchaeota were 54.63 ± 6.47% and 44.43 ± 6.73% across all digesters. This research demonstrated that among all temperatures studied, 44 °C could enhance the conversion efficiency of the substrates to methane and be recommended for better conversion of CS in AD process.