Overcoming ammonia inhibition via biochar-assisted anaerobic co-digestion of thermally-treated thickened waste activated sludge and food waste.

The convergence of sustainability and climate change has catalyzed the pursuit of inventive strategies for waste management and sustainable energy production. Hereby, we explored the effect of coupling biochar addition and thermal pretreatment in anaerobic mono-digestion and co-digestion of thermally pretreated thickened waste activated sludge (PTWAS) with food waste (FW). Six semi-continuous lab-scale digesters were operated for 161 days at various organic loading rates (OLR of 2, 3, 4 and 8 kgCOD/m/day) with and without biochar (BC) addition.

Microbial communities in co-digestion of food wastes and wastewater biosolids.

The effect of food waste (FW) co-digestion with wastewater biosolids (WWB) on microbial communities was investigated through running thirteen lab-scale digesters for 100 days at different operational conditions i.e. organic loading rates (2 and 4 kgCOD/m·day), feed types (WWB and FW), and FW content (10%, 90%, 100%).