Synergistic and Pretreatment Effect on Anaerobic Co-Digestion from Rice Straw and Municipal Sewage Sludge

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion is considered to be a priority disposal technology for rice straw and sewage sludge. In this study, the synergistic and alkali-treat effect on co-digestion of rice straw and sewage sludge was investigated. The results indicated that the co-digestion of alkali-treated rice straw and sewage sludge had the best biogas yield of 338.9 mL/gVS, which was 1.06 and 1.75 times that of either alkali-treated rice straw or sewage sludge alone, respectively. The actual biogas and methane yields of a co-digestion group with raw rice straw and sewage sludge (G4) increased 26.39% and 24.79% relative to the theoretical calculation based on raw rice straw digestion (group G2) and sewage sludge digestion (group G5), suggesting that a synergistic effect occurred during the co-digestion process. The maximum concentration of volatile fatty acids (VFA) was 4860 mg/L on the 4th day in the sewage sludge group. Xylanase activity reached a maximum of 10.55 U/mL on the 6th day in the alkali-treated rice straw group, while the concentration of protease enzyme was relatively higher in the sewage sludge group than in others. The removal rates of cellulose and hemicellulose in groups with alkali treatment were 32.25% and 36.96% (G1) and 40.86% and 41.61% (G3), higher than that of groups without treatment.