Fermentation

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over-reliance on fossil fuels and its consequences, which take the form of global warming and air pollution, necessitate the exploration of more sustainable and alternative resources for circular and carbon-neutral development. Biomass-derived fuels and chemicals (e.g., hydrogen, methane, short-chain and long-chain carboxylic acids, and alcohols) are regarded as crucial components in efforts to meet the criteria of sustainability. The treatment of waste biomass is currently undergoing a paradigm shift from “waste disposal” to the more promising prospect of “energy and resource recovery”. Biotechnology treatment is the core technology that underlies the biotransformation process that turns carbon-rich biomass into high-value-added fuels and chemicals via pure cultures or defined heterogeneous microbial consortia. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to highlight the findings of original research articles and reviews in this field. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the development of fermentation technologies, electrofermentation, chain elongation, product extraction for the conversion of waste biomass into green chemicals, biofuels, biopolymers, related process optimization, microbial ecological mechanism, and application-related engineering.

This Special Issue, “Efficient Biorefinery of Waste Biomass into Valuable Resources and Energy: 2nd Edition”, is a second issue on this topic. The first Special Issue was published last year and included 7 published papers: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/fermentation/special_issues/Biorefinery_Wastes_Resources.

Prof. Dr. Aijuan Zhou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Fermentation is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

13 pages, 3177 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Syntrophic Jiont of Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria and Hydrogen-Producing Acetogen Stimulated Methane Production from Waste Activated Sludge Digestion

by Haokun Wu, Aijuan Zhou, Yanqing Duan, Zhihong Liu, Zhangwei He, Wenzong Liu and Xiuping Yue

Fermentation 2024, 10(5), 243; https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation10050243 - 03 May 2024

Viewed by 231

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion of waste-activated sludge (WAS) towards biogas recovery is constrained by the limited hydrolysis and inhibited acetogenesis steps that hinder subsequent energy recovery. This study employed Fe(VI)/S(IV) oxidation to enhance the WAS solubilization and coupled it with the syntrophic interaction of hydrogen-producing acetogen (HPA) and sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) to stimulate the successive procedure towards methane production. Results showed that the dosage ratio of HPA-SRB to WAS (H-S-W) with 1:1:50 outperformed with the highest methane production potential (11.63 ± 1.87 mL CH₄/(g VSS·d). Meanwhile, the efficient and sequential process from acetogenesis to methanogenesis stimulated by HPA-SRB was evidenced by a significant decrease of 30.2% in the acetate concentration. The microbial community structure further manifested the crucial role of HPA-SRB with increased abundance of Desulfobulbus (2.07%), Syntrophomonas (1.24%) and Smithella (1.63%), which stimulated acetophilic methanogen boost with Methanobacterium dominating with 77.51% in H-S-W₁₀₀. Furthermore, the positive syntrophic relationships among HPA-SRB and acetophilic methanogens towards methane production were confirmed via molecular ecological network and canonical correspondence analysis. This study highlighted the syntrophic cooperation of the mixed consortia of HPA and SRB on methane production based on Fe(VI)/S(IV) pretreatment and provided the theoretical and technical basis for the potential implementation of novel methanogenesis technology for WAS treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Efficient Biorefinery of Waste Biomass into Valuable Resources and Energy: 2nd Edition)

► Show Figures