Innovative two-stage anaerobic process for effective codigestion of cheese whey and cattle manure

The valorisation of agroindustrial waste through anaerobic digestion represents a significant opportunity for refuse treatment and renewable energy production. This study aimed to improve the codigestion of cheese whey (CW) and cattle manure (CM) by an innovative two-stage process, based on concentric acidogenic and methanogenic phases, designed for enhancing performance and reducing footprint. The optimum CW to CM ratio was evaluated under batch conditions. Thereafter, codigestion was implemented under continuous-flow conditions comparing one- and two-stage processes. The results demonstrated that the addition of CM in codigestion with CW greatly improved the anaerobic process. The highest methane yield was obtained co-treating the two substrates at equal ratio by using the innovative two-stage process. The proposed system reached the maximum value of 258 mL(CH4) g(vs)(-1), which was more than twice the value obtained by the one-stage process and 10% higher than the value obtained by the two-stage one. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.