Synergistic Effects of Codigesting Preprocessed Food Waste Slurry

Anaerobic digestion is the most widely used technology to produce biogas such as methane and hydrogen from the decomposition of organic compounds. The effectiveness of the process depends on the stability of the consecutive reactions i.e. hydrolysis, acidification, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis. The process is widely used in sludge treatment for stabilization and production of methane gas. Due to the recent demand of renewable energy, anaerobic digestion has also been used for treating biodegradable wastes; for instance, the organic fraction of municipal solids wastes, wastewater treatment biosolids, and various food and beverage wastes (Arsova, 2010). Particularly, anaerobic digestion of food wastes (FW) is also considered as one of the effective methods of waste management. However, digestion stability can be hampered when FW is used as single substrate due to the high variability of its composition depending on its source (Lacovidou et al., 2012). Thus, the use of FW as co-substrate for municipal sludge digestion has emerged to enhance sludge digestibility, and increase energy generation to facilitate the achievability of energy-neutral wastewater treatment.