title: Characterization of biocarbon-source recovery and microbial community shifts from waste activated sludge by conditioning with cornstover: Assessment of cellulosic compositions.
abstract: Most studies on the production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from waste activated sludge (WAS) digestion have focused on operating conditions, pretreatments and characteristic adjustments. Conditioning by extra carbon sources (ECS), normally added in a solid form, has been reported to be an efficient approach. However, this has caused considerable waste of monomeric sugars in the hydrolysate. In this study, the effects of two added forms (pretreated straw (S) and hydrolyzed liquid (L)) of cornstover (CS) on WAS acidification were investigated. To obtain different cellulosic compositions of CS, low-thermal or autoclaved assisted alkaline (TA or AA) pretreatments were conducted. The results showed that AA-L test achieved the highest VFAs value (653 mg COD/g VSS), followed by AA-S (613 mg COD/g VSS). These values were 12% and 28% higher, respectively, than that obtained in the TA-L and TA-S tests. Meanwhile, higher percentages of acetic acid were observed after AA pretreatment (~62% versus ~53% in TA). The added forms of CS played an important role in structuring the innate microbial community in the WAS, as shown by high-throughput sequencing and canonical correspondence analysis. The findings obtained in this work may provide a scientific basis for the potential implementation of co-digesting WAS with ECS simultaneously obtaining energy and high value-added products.
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China.
authors.forename: Kaili
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China.|State Key Laboratory Breeding Base of Coal Science and Technology Co-founded by Shanxi Province and the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China.
authors.forename: Aijuan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: College of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China.
authors.forename: Jiaguang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China.
authors.forename: Zhihong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China.
authors.forename: Guoying
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wenzong
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.|State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology (SKLUWRE, HIT), Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Aijie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China.
authors.forename: Xiuping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yue