Effect of Co-substrate on Degradation of Benzothiazole in MEC

Due to its persistence and bio-toxicity,benzothiazole(BTH) cannot be biodegraded efficiently.Recent work has shown that removal rates of biorefractory organics can be enhanced by the addition of cosubstrates.In this work,ethanol,acetate,propionate and butyrate were added as co-substrates in order to promote the degradation of BTH in microbial electrolysis cell(MEC).By probing the changes in degradation rates of BTH in the presence of different co-substrates,it was observed that all the four co-substrates can enhance the BTH degradation in MEC,both the efficiency(EBTH) and the rate(RBTH).It was also found that acetate is more effective than others,which made the degradation efficiency of BTH up to 90% with acetate-C at350 mg/L(measuring by the carbon content of co-substrate,the same below),within 6 h and the degradation rate of BTH arrived 0.001 2/(mg·h).The microbacteria in MEC have also been influenced by different cosubstrates.This metabolism of the co-substrates enables the microbacteria on anode to generate ATP and thus grow to ensure the microbacteria activity.Therefore,this work showed that the addition of co-substrates such as acetate can be a novel and efficient approach for improving the elimination of BTH from wastewaters by MEC system.

Biogas Production from Co-Digestion of Grass with Food Waste

Management of grasslands in Ghana has become so poor that most rural communities result in bushfires that cause a lot of environmental challenges. Grass could be used for biogas generation. This study investigated the effect of grass and food waste co-digestion on the biogas yield and clarified how the addition of grass enhances the AD performance. Grass (GR) mixed with the co-substrate food waste (FW) was then evaluated under anaerobic conditions for the production of biogas (methane). Five laboratory-scale reactors, R1 (100% FW, 0% GR), R2 (75% FW, 25% GR), R3 (50% FW, 50% GR), R4 (25% FW, 75% GR) and R5 (0% FW, 100% GR) were set up with different proportions of grass and food waste which had 8% total solid concentration. Digestion was carried out for twenty (20) days at room temperature, 35&#176C ± 2&#176C. The biogas yield in the R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 was 805, 840, 485, 243 and 418 mL respectively. Food waste only produced 805 mL and grass only produced 418 mL of biogas. Food waste only produced 50% more biogas than grass. However, co-digestion at 75% FW, 25% resulted in 6% more biogas than food waste only.