Biomethanation and microbial community response during agricultural biomass and shrimp chaff digestion

Anaerobic digestion, a promising technology for waste utilization and bioenergy generation, is a suitable approach to convert the shrimp waste to biomethane, reducing its environmental impact. In this study, shrimp chaff (SC) was co-digested corn straw (CS), wheat straw (WS), and sugarcane bagasse (SB). In co digestion, SC enhanced biomethane production of CS by 8.47-fold, followed by SC + WS (5.67-folds), and SC + SB (3.37-folds). SC addition to agricultural biomass digestion also promoted the volatile solids removal up to 85%. Microbial community analysis of SC and CS co-digestion presented the dominance of phylum Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Proteobacteria, and Euryarchaeota. Proteolytic bacteria were dominant (18.02%) during co-digestion of SC and CS, with Proteiniphilum as major bacterial genera (14%) that converts complex proteinaceous substrates to organic acids. Among the archaeal community, Methanosarcina responsible for conversion of acetate and hydrogen to biomethane, increased up to 70.77% in SC and CS digestion. Addition of SC to the digestion of agricultural wastes can significantly improve the biomethane production along with its effective management to reduce environmental risks. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.