title: Biochemical methane potential (BMP) of food waste and primary sludge: influence of inoculum pre-incubation and inoculum source.
abstract: Biochemical methane potential tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of using a blank versus a pre-incubated inoculum in digestion of primary sludge at different waste to inoculum ratios (S/X). In addition, this study explored the influence of using two different anaerobic inoculum sources on the digestion of food waste: digested sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant and from a digester treating the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes. The results revealed that although there was no significant difference in methane yield (on average 114mLCH(4)/g TCOD(sub)) or biodegradability (on average 28.3%) of primary sludge using pre-incubated or non-incubated inocula, the maximum methane production rates using non-incubated inoculum were higher than those using pre-incubated inoculum at all S/X ratios. Moreover, interestingly the inoculum from an anaerobic digester treating municipal wastewater sludge was superior over the inoculum from anaerobic digester treating food waste in digesting food waste.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5B9.
authors.forename: Elsayed
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Elbeshbishy
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nakhla
authors.forename: Hisham
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hafez
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D005502:Food; D008697:Methane / Q000378:metabolism*; D012722:Sewage
chemical_list: D012722:Sewage; D008697:Methane