Addition of Conductive Materials to Support Syntrophic Microorganisms in Anaerobic Digestion
2022
Roger König | Maurizio Cuomo | Elisa Pianta | Antoine Buetti | Federica Mauri | Matteo Tanadini | Pamela Principi
Syntrophy and interspecies electron transfer among different microbial groups occurs in anaerobic digestion, and many papers recently reported their positive effect on biogas and methane production. In this paper, we present the results on the effect of conductive material, i.e., graphene, PAC and biochar addition in 3.5 L batch experiments, analyzing the biogas production curve. A peculiar curve pattern occurred in the presence of conductive materials. Compared to the respective controls, the addition of graphene produced a biogas surplus of 33%, PAC 20% and biochar 8%. Microbial community molecular analysis showed that syntrophic microorganisms present in the inoculum were stimulated by the conductive material addition. Graphene also appears to promote an interspecies electron transfer between <i>Geobacter</i> sp. and ca. <i>Methanofastidiosum</i>. This paper contributes to the understanding of the DIET-related microbial community dynamic in the presence of graphene and PAC, which could be exploited to optimize biogas and methane production in real-scale applications.
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