Impact of using glucose as a sole carbon source to analyze the effect of biochar on the kinetics of biomethane production

Abstract The adaptation of biochar in anaerobic digestion (AD) positively influences the conversion of substrate to biomethane and promotes system stability. This study investigated the influence of biochar (BC) doses (0 to 8 g/L) on the Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) of glucose during a 60-day AD in a mesophilic batch-type reactor. The first 6.5 weeks of the experimentation were dedicated to the microorganism’s adaptation to the biochar and degradation of organics from the used inoculum (3 phases of the glucose feeding). The last 2 weeks (4th phase of glucose feeding) represented the assumption, that glucose is the sole carbon source in the system. A machine learning model based on the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) method was used to model the cumulative BMP. The results showed that the BMP increased with the amount of BC added. The highest BMP was obtained at a dose of 8 g/L, with a maximum cumulative BMP of 390.33 mL CH 4 /g-VS added. Likewise, the system showed stability in the pH (7.17 to 8.17). In contrast, non-amended reactors produced only 135.06 mL CH 4 /g-VS and became acidic at the end of the operation. Reducing the influence of carbon from inoculum, sharpened the positive effect of BC on the kinetics of biomethane production from glucose.