Methane enhancement and asynchronism minimization through co-digestion of goose manure and NaOH solubilized corn stover with waste activated sludge

Abstract

Anaerobic co-digestion of corn stover (CS) and goose manure (GM) was carried out in the present study at four composition levels. Corn stover was pretreated to enhance its lignocellulosic digestibility. The NaOH pretreatment effect on the chemical composition of the corn stover was also determined and the methane production from all the composition levels was found significant (P < 0.05) as compared with the control. The cumulative methane production of treatment C2 (0.6 CS: 0.4 GM), C3 (0.4 CS: 0.6 GM) and C4 (0.2 CS: 0.8 GM) were 86.1%, 92.1% and 83.1% enhanced as compared with the control respectively. On the basis of the experimental results, it was concluded that a C/N ratio between 20 and 30 was found optimum to enhance methane production. Asynchronism minimization was observed for all the treatments. Process chemistry of the whole co-digestion process like total volatile fatty acids (TVFAs), alcohol production pattern, pH, soluble chemical oxygen demand (CODs), total available ammonia (TAN) and free available ammonia (FAN) were deeply monitored.