Historical Perspective of the Addition of Magnetic Nanoparticles Into Anaerobic Digesters (2014-2021)

The addition of magnetic nanoparticles to batch anaerobic digestion was first reported in 2014. Afterwards, the number of works dealing with this subject has been increasing year by year. The discovery of the enhancement of anaerobic digestion by adding iron-based nanoparticles has created a multidisciplinary emerging research field. As a consequence, in the last years, great efforts have been made to understand the enhancement mechanisms by which magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) addition enhances the anaerobic digestion process of numerous organic wastes. Some hypotheses point to the dissolution of iron as essential iron for anaerobic digestion development, and the state of oxidation of iron NPs that can reduce organic matter to methane. The evolution and trends of this novel topic are discussed in this manuscript. Perspectives on the needed works on this topic are also presented.

A Distinct, Flocculent, Acidogenic Microbial Community Accompanies Methanogenic Granules in Anaerobic Digesters

Complex microbial communities in engineered environments can aggregate to form surface-attached biofilms. Others form suspended biofilms, such as methanogenic granules.

Hydrothermal Pretreatment of Rice Straw with Alkaline Addition for Enhancing Biogas Production in Semicontinuous Anaerobic Digester

This study presents the results of hydrothermal pretreatment of rice straw on its ability to improve the biogas production process in anaerobic digesters. Hydrothermal treatment on rice straw biomass was carried out with the addition of 0%, 3% and 5% NaOH (w/w rice straw) for one hour at a temperature of 140 °C. This study showed that hydrothermal and alkaline hydrothermal pretreatments were able to increase organic degradation of rice straw as indicated by an increase in the dissolution of lignin and hemicellulose from rice straw. Temperature and NaOH worked synergistically to dissolve lignocellulose in the hydrothermal pretreatment process. In the semicontinuous digester fed with pretreated rice straw, NaOH content in the pretreatment stage was found to give significant effect in enhancing biogas production. Average daily biogas production by the untreated rice straw, hydrothermal pretreated without NaOH addition, hydrothermally treated rice straw with 3% NaOH and 5% NaOH was 23.9, 57.1, 95.8 and 108.8 L/kg rice straw, respectively.