Study suggests that enrichment of cellulose-degraders in the baffled compartments can aid stable co-digestion of high-strength wastewater and solid organic waste from biomanufacturing processes.
A novel bioreactor developed by researchers could facilitate sustainable biomanufacturing through efficient methane recovery utilising anaerobic microorganisms.
The technology created by researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and Kagoshima College in Japan enables digestion of synthetic high-strength wastewater and solid organic waste alongside methane recovery.
Their anaerobic baffled continuous stirring (ABCS) reactor allows for simultaneous anaerobic digestion. It provides a potential advancement for the pharmaceutical industry, as generating this waste into energy from biomanufacturing processes using anaerobic digestion has been a major challenge in conventional reactors. One key issue is the time required for microbial hydrolysis with this approach.
According to the study by Isshiki et al, dividing the reactor into a stirred compartment and a baffled compartment prevents accumulation of solids. This enabled stable, long-term operation over 100 days of continuous operation, as well as a methane production rate 1.62-fold compared to traditional reactors.
In biomanufacturing plant-based biomass is used as feedstock. The process generates solid organic waste that was not converted to sugars as well as organic wastewater. And these outputs must be treated prior to disposal.
Currently solid organic waste is treated through incineration then dehydration and drying. Moreover, high-strength organic wastewater treatment requires large-scale facilities. These practises are unsustainable due to the high energy needed.
Yet anaerobic digestion technology provides a sustainable alternative, since organic matter is degraded via microorganisms and energy is recovered in the form of methane.
Anaerobic biological treatment technologies helps to reduce the industry’s dependence on fossil fuel-based energy, Isshiki et al. wrote.
The findings have been published in Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering.
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