High-Solids Anaerobic Digestion of Cassava Pulp in Semi-continuous Bioreactors

The effects of two total solids contents (TS) and two inocula were studied for the semi-continuous high-solids anaerobic digestion (HS-AD) of cassava pulp under mesophilic conditions (35 +/- 2 degrees C). In the 1.0-L bioreactors, two TS of 15% and 20% with digestate as a sole inoculum were chosen to run the HS-AD, and two inocula (the digestate from the AD of cassava pulp and sewage sludge) were used separately under TS 20%. All treatments were carried out at the organic matter loading rates (OLRs) of from 3.0 to 10.0 kg volatile solids (VS)/(m(3).d), with each phase of 6 days followed by two 3-days phases of no feeding and then low OLR of 6.5 kg VS/(m(3).d). Compared with TS 15%, the bioreactors of TS 20% with the digestate had a higher buffering capability to alleviate the rapid acidification and a higher level of the specific methane yields (SMYs) of from 0.212 to 0.233 m(3)/(kgVSadded) at the OLRs of 4.0 to 6.5 kgVS/(m(3).d), while TS 15% obtained the highest SMY of from 0.152 to 0.182 m(3)/(kgVSadded) at the OLR of 4.0, 6.5, and 8.0 kgVS/(m(3).d). In contrast, sewage sludge did not restrain the rapid acidification and only yielded quite small SMYs under TS 20%.