Enhanced methane recovery and exoelectrogen-methanogen evolution from low-strength wastewater in an up-flow biofilm reactor with conductive granular graphite fillers

Abstract

Methane yield increased 22 times from low-strength wastewater by applying conductive fillers.

Conductive fillers accelerated the start-up stage of anaerobic biofilm reactor.

Conductive fillers altered methanogens structure.

Methane production from low-strength wastewater (LSWW) is generally difficult because of the low metabolism rate of methanogens. Here, an up-flow biofilm reactor equipped with conductive granular graphite (GG) as fillers was developed to enhance direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) between syntrophic electroactive bacteria and methanogens to stimulate methanogenesis process. Compared to quartz sand fillers, using conductive fillers significantly enhanced methane production and accelerated the start-up stage of biofilm reactor. At HRT of 6 h, the average methane production rate and methane yield of reactor with GG were 0.106 m³/(m^3.d) and 74.5 L/kg COD, which increased by 34.3 times and 22.4 times respectively compared with the reactor with common quartz sand fillers. The microbial community analysis revealed that methanogens structure was significantly altered and the archaea that are involved in DIET (such as Methanobacterium) were enriched in GG filler. The beneficial effects of conductive fillers on methane production implied a practical strategy for efficient methane recovery from LSWW.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Low-strength wastewater / Methane production / Conductive filler / Microbial community structure

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