Enhanced anaerobic digestion of food waste by adding activated carbon: Fate of bacterial pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes

摘要

Effects of activated carbon (AC) addition on biogas production, bacterial pathogens removal and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) during anaerobic digestion (AD) for food waste were investigated. Results indicate that anaerobic digesters with AC addition (R1) maintained stable operation with methane yield of 0.35 L CH4/Lig VS at high organic loading rate of 4.38 g VSFW/Lid while the control digesters displayed less stability and caused acidification. Some specific dominant bacteria were enriched in R1, resulting in a lower microbial biodiversity. A total of 11 bacterial pathogens and 12 ARGs was detected in the sludge samples. Compared to the control, adding AC enhanced the AD process by decreasing the relative abundance of bacterial pathogens by 18%. Moreover, AC supplementation also facilitated reduction of abundant ARGs, including tetA, tetM, tetW, tetO, tetQ sul2 and tetX. This study may provide an ecological treatment method for AD with the addition of AC. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.