Effects of free ammonia on volatile fatty acid accumulation and process performance in the anaerobic digestion of two typical bio-wastes

The effect of free ammonia on volatile fatty acid （VFA） accumulation and process instability was studied using a lab-scale anaerobic digester fed by two typical bio-wastes： fruit and vegetable waste （FVW） and food waste （FW） at 35℃ with an organic loading rate （OLR） of 3.0 kg VS/（m3-day）. The inhibitory effects of free ammonia on methanogenesis were observed due to the low C/N ratio of each substrate （15.6 and 17.2, respectively）. A high concentration of free ammonia inhibited methanogenesis resulting in the accumulation of VFAs and a low methane yield. In the inhibited state, acetate accumulated more quickly than propionate and was the main type of accumulated VFA. The co-accumulation of ammonia and VFAs led to an ＂inhibited steady state＂ and the ammonia was the main inhibitory substance that triggered the process perturbation. By statistical significance test and VFA fluctuation ratio analysis, the free ammonia inhibition threshold was identified as 45 mg/L. Moreover, propionate, iso-butyrate and valerate were determined to be the three most sensitive VFA parameters that were subject to ammonia inhibition.

Impact of undissociated volatile fatty acids on acidogenesis in a two-phase anaerobic system

This study investigated the degradation and production of volatile fatty acids（VFAs）in the acidogenic phase reactor of a two-phase anaerobic system.20 mmol/L bromoethanesulfonic acid（BESA）was used to inhibit acidogenic methanogens（which were present in the acidogenic phase reactor）from degrading VFAs.The impact of undissociated volatile fatty acids（un VFAs）on＂net＂VFAs production in the acidogenic phase reactor was then evaluated,with the exclusion of concurrent VFAs degradation.＂Net＂VFAs production from glucose degradation was partially inhibited at high un VFAs concentrations,with 59%,37% and 60% reduction in production rates at 2190 mg chemical oxygen demand（COD）/L undissociated acetic acid（un HAc）,2130 mg COD/L undissociated propionic acid（un HPr）and 2280 mg COD/L undissociated n-butyric acid（un HBu）,respectively.The profile of VFAs produced further indicated that while an un VFA can primarily affect its own formation,there were also un VFAs that affected the formation of other VFAs.

The effect of salinity on waste activated sludge alkaline fermentation and kinetic analysis

The effect of salinity on sludge alkaline fermentation at low temperature（20°C） was investigated, and a kinetic analysis was performed. Different doses of sodium chloride（Na Cl, 0–25 g/L） were added into the fermentation system. The batch-mode results showed that the soluble chemical oxygen demand（SCOD） increased with salinity. The hydrolysate（soluble protein, polysaccharide） and the acidification products（short chain fatty acids（SCFAs）, NH＋4–N, and PO_4^（3-）–P） increased with salinity initially, but slightly declined respectively at higher level salinity（20 g/L or 20–25 g/L）. However, the hydrolytic acidification performance increased in the presence of salt compared to that without salt.Furthermore, the results of Haldane inhibition kinetics analysis showed that the salt enhanced the hydrolysis rate of particulate organic matter from sludge particulate and the specific utilization of hydrolysate, and decreased the specific utilization of SCFAs. Pearson correlation coefficient analysis indicated that the importance of polysaccharide on the accumulation of SCFAs was reduced with salt addition, but the importance of protein and NH＋4–N on SCFA accumulation was increased.