Enhanced methane production from source-separated human feces (brown water) by single phase anaerobic co-digestion: Effects of different co-substrates

Based on the concept of source separation of brown water (BW, human feces with flushing water) and yellow water (urine) in rural area, anaerobic co-digestion of BW with agricultural waste is a promising and effective method for rural waste treatment and resource recovery. The purpose of this study was to investigate the performance of different agricultural wastes (peanut straw (PST), peanut shell (PSH), swine wastewater acting as co-substrate for anaerobic co-digestion with BW, and the relative mechanisms were explored. When the mixed ratio was uniformly set as 1:1 (mass ratio, measured by volatile solid (VS)) and initial VS load as 20 g/L, the maximum cumulative methane production obtained by co-digestion (21 days) of BW and PST was 688 mL/g-VS, which performed better than the individual substrates (341 mL/g-VS), as well as the average of the sole BW and sole PST groups (531.2 mL/g-VS). The most impactful advantage was ascribed to the promotion of hydrolytic and acidogenic enzyme activities. The addition of PST also reduced the production of endogenous humus, which is difficult for biodegradation. Microbial community analysis showed that different co-substrates would affect the microbial community composition in the reactor. The relative abundance of hydrolytic acidogens in the PST and PSH co-digestion groups were higher than that in the SW co-digestion and sole BW groups, and the methanogenic archaea were dominated by the acetate-trophic Methanotrichaceae. The overall results suggest that anaerobic co-digestion is a feasible method, and co-digestion of BW and PST can improve methane production potential. •The performance of peanut straw, peanut shell, and swine wastewater acting as co-substrate for brown water were investigated.•Co-digestion of PST + BW enhanced the specific methane yield by 1.02 times compared with BW mono-digestion.•Acetate-trophic methanogenic archaea (Methanotrichaceae) dominated in all reactors.