Anaerobic Co-digestion of Biomass for Methane Production: Recent Research Achievements

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a process by which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. Anaerobic digestion can be used to treat various organic wastes and recover bio-energy in the form of biogas, which consists mainly of CH4 and CO2. A great option for improving yields of anaerobic digestion of solid wastes is the co-digestion of multiple substrates. Numerous studies demonstrate that using co-substrates in anaerobic digestion system improves the biogas yields due to positives synergisms established in the digestion medium and the supply of missing nutrients by the co-substrates. In addition, codigestion offers several possible ecological economical advantages. Recent research (published during the past three years) on this topic is reviewed in the current paper. Special attention is paid to anaerobic co-digestion of animal waste, crop and crop residues, municipal solid waste (MSW), as well as municipal sewage sludge.