Methane Production of Food Waste Anaerobic Digestion Recovered from NaCl Inhibition by Water Dilution

Abstract

One of the significant challenges of food waste anaerobic digestion (AD) is the negative effect of high NaCl concentrations. This study investigated the effects of NaCl fluctuation on the methane generation of food waste AD under thermophilic and mesophilic conditions. Particularly, the effects of the shock loading of high NaCl concentration with/ without water dilution treatment were investigated. Generally, the methane generation decreased with increasing NaCl concentration. In addition, the sensitivity of the thermophilic AD to NaCl concentrations (5-10 g/L) was higher than that of the mesophilic AD. Furthermore, with an increase in the NaCl concentration from 0 to 30 g/L, the accumulative methane volumes of the thermophilic reactors decreased from 210 to 45 mL/gVS, and those of the mesophilic reactors decreased from 265 to 67 mL/gVS. Additionally, the pH of digestate decreased with increasing NaCl concentration. In contrast, the concentrations of the chemical oxygen demand and volatile fatty acid increased with increasing NaCl concentration. These results indicated that a shock loading of NaCl significantly reduced methane generation. In addition, the methane generation rates could be recovered up to 64-72% using water dilution as a remedial measure. Further investigation using 16S rRNA analysis revealed that the predominant genus of the methanogens shifted from Methanoculleus to Methanosarcina after the removal of the osmotic stress using water dilution.