Effects of microbial and non-microbial factors of liquid anaerobic digestion effluent as inoculum on solid-state anaerobic digestion of corn stover.

The microbial activity of the inoculum (liquid anaerobic digestion effluent) was altered by autoclaving part of the effluent to study the effect of feedstock to active effluent ratio (F/Ea, 2.2-6.6) and the feedstock to total effluent ratio (F/Et, 2.

Reactor performance and microbial community dynamics during solid-state anaerobic digestion of corn stover at mesophilic and thermophilic conditions.

Reactor performance and microbial community dynamics were investigated during solid state anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) of corn stover at mesophilic and thermophilic conditions. Thermophilic SS-AD led to faster and greater reductions of cellulose and hemicelluloses during the first 12 days compared to mesophilic SS-AD. However, accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) was 5-fold higher at thermophilic than mesophilic temperatures, resulting in a large pH drop during days 6-12 in the thermophilic reactors.