Supplementation of KOH to improve salt tolerance of methanogenesis in the two-stage anaerobic digestion of food waste using pre-acclimated anaerobically digested sludge by air-nanobubble water

Abstract

Air-nanobubble water (NBW) was applied to pre-acclimate anaerobically digested sludge that was then used as the inoculum in the two-stage anaerobic digestion (AD) of high saline (20 g NaCl/L) food waste (FW) to optimize NBW application in the AD of high saline FW. K+ was simultaneously supplemented during the methanogenic stage to resist the inhibition of salt on methanogens. Results showed that after the second pre-acclimation cycle, the inoculum activity was increased 27% in the Air-NBW supplemented reactor in comparison to the deionized water (DW) supplemented one. In the first-stage AD, H2 yield was enhanced by 46% in the Air-NBW pre-acclimated sludge reactor compared with the DW pre-acclimated sludge reactor. Besides, supplementation of KOH in the methanogenic stage could enhance methane production by 17–25% in the DW reactors at initial pH 7.5, 8.0, and 9.0 when compared to the control reactor (using NaOH adjusted initial pH to 7.5), respectively.