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Enhanced methane production with co-feeding spent coffee grounds using spare capacity of existing anaerobic food waste digesters

Scientific Reports 2024 5 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 45 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Danbee Kim, Junho Cha, Changsoo Lee

Summary

Researchers investigated the anaerobic co-digestion of small amounts of spent coffee grounds with food waste at co-feeding ratios of 1:100 to 1:10 to enhance methane production. The study found that using spare capacity of existing anaerobic digestion systems can sustainably manage spent coffee grounds while improving biogas yields.

With increasing coffee consumption worldwide, the efficient and sustainable management of spent coffee grounds (SCG) has become increasingly challenging. This study investigated the anaerobic co-digestion of small amounts of SCG with food waste (FW) at increasing co-feeding ratios of 1:100-1:10 (volatile solids basis) to assess the possibility of SCG treatment using the spare capacity of existing anaerobic digesters. Co-feeding SCG increased methane production compared to FW mono-digestion in the tested range of co-feeding ratios without compromising process stability. Methane yield did not further increase when the SCG/FW ratio increased above 4%, and process failure occurred at a 1:10 co-feeding ratio without trace element supplementation. The enhanced methanogenic performance was attributed to increased protein removal efficiency, which was potentially related to the promotion of peptide hydrolysis. The overall results suggest that co-feeding appropriate small amounts of SCG to FW digesters can be a realistic sustainable option for SCG management.

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