Effect of inoculum pretreatment on the microbial and metabolic dynamics of food waste dark fermentation

This study systematically evaluated and compared different inoculum pretreatment methods to quickly select dark fermentative bacteria from anaerobic sludge for the bioconversion of food waste. The hydrogen (H-2) production rate was found to be highest for 'heat +/- CO2' treated inoculum at 140.75 +/- 2.61 mL/L/h compared to control experiments (60.27 +/- 2.61 mL/L/h). At the same time, H-2 yield was found to be highest for alkali-treated inoculum at 157.25 +/- 7.62 mL/g of volatile solids (VS) added compared to control experiments (91.61 +/- 1.93 mL/g VS). Analysis of organic acids suggests a Clostridial-type fermentation with acetate (0.52 to 1.60 g/L) and butyrate (1.69 to 2.42 g/L) being the major by-products. The microbial data analysis showed that Firmicutes (63.64-90.39%), Bacteroidota (1.16-21.88%), and Proteobacteria (2.09-9.93%) were dominant at the phylum level, whereas genus-level classification showed Clostridium sensu stricto 1 (6.37-42.63%), Streptococcus (1.87-28.96%), Prevotella (0.57-16.59%), and Enterococcus (0.56-14.51%) dominated under different experimental conditions.

Automated summary

This study systematically evaluated and compared different inoculum pretreatment methods to quickly select dark fermentative bacteria from anaerobic sludge for the bioconversion of food waste. The results showed that the treatment methods of heat and alkali produced the highest hydrogen production rate and yield. Analysis of organic acids and microbial data revealed the presence of acetate and butyrate as major by-products, with Firmicutes, Bacteroidota, and Proteobacteria as the dominant phyla.