• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 1998

The effects of compost inoculation on the degradation of cellulosic fraction in composting of food waste and paper mixture were investigated by bench-scale composting. With the increase of seed inoculation, the time to reach the peaks of temperature, $CO_2$ evolution rate, and ammonia evolution rate was reduced, indicating that seed compost had beneficial effects on the enhanced degradation of organic materials at the early stage of composting. However, the final conversion of organic matters and the loss of ammonia were not affected by the amount of seed compost inoculated. The increasing of seed inoculum also resulted in the higher level of cellulase activity at initial stages and rapid rise to the maximums, suggesting that initial supply of sufficient cellulolytic microorganisms might facilitate the evolution of cellulase activity. The cellulose was degraded substantially during the increasing phase of cellulase activity, while they showed similar values at the end of 20 days composting. As a result, the seed inoculation seemed to be effective to the enhanced evolution of cellulase activity and cellulose degradation at initial stage of composting. But it did not contribute to increase the final degradation of cellulose after the entire composting reaction of 20 days.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.65-72
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• 2020

The aims of this study were to compare the biomethanation of CO₂ through specific methanogenic activity (SMA) test which was inoculated with four different types of mixed microbial culture obtained from full-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) plants. The experimental results showed that CH₄ conversion was the highest in the samples inoculated by seed sludge taken from ADs of food waste and brewery; under this condition, the produced biomethane contains 89.3-91.9% of CH₄. Meanwhile, the lowest level was obtained in the sample from sewage sludge. The measured ratio of CH₄ production rate to CO₂ consumption rate in all reactors was higher than the theoretical value (1) in the middle of the period and soon dropped to 0.7-0.8. It might be due to changed metabolic pathways in the reactor by the degradation of residual organic matter and the increased activity of homoacetogenic bacteria.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.197-205
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• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the optimum conditions for efficient methane production through anaerobic digestion of pig waste slurry. The examined parameters were organic matter content of the pig slurry, the ratio of seed sludge to pig slurry, and stirring intensity of the digestion reactor. The effects of types of slurry produced from different purpose-based pigs fed with different feeds were also tested. The methane concentration in the produced biogas was 45% when the ratio of seed sludge to pig slurry was 50% and total solid (TS) concentration was 1%, and it increased in proportional to TS concentration increases from 3 to 7%. At 3 and 5% of TS concentration, increasing mixing velocity from 80 to 160 rpm resulted in higher biogas production amount. However, mixing amount of seed sludge did not cause any significant effect on biogas production. Overall, the most efficient biogas production was achieved at 3-5% TS concentration in combination with 50% seed sludge inoculation and mixing velocity at 120 rpm. Among pig slurry types, gestating sow waste slurry showed the highest biogas production probably due to higher the degradation rate than other types of pig waste slurry being affected by the feeds components.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2004

The seeding sources and concentration of ammonia on anaerobic digestion were investigated by batch culture bioreactors. The sources of seeding on anaerobic digestion were from swine wastewater collection pit of a hog raising farm and from anaerobic digestion sludge of a municipal sewage treatment plant. The inhibition of ammonia on anaerobic microorganisms was initiated at ammonia concentration of $1,500\;mgNH_4-N/L$ and it's effect was increased by increased by increasing ammonia concentration up to $3,500\;mgNH_4-N/L$ regardless the sources of seeding as evidenced by decreases in COD removal efficiencies and biogas yields. The inhibition occurred to not only methanogens but also acidogens since the concentration of volatile fatty acids was maintained at 50 mg/L The COD removal efficiency and biogas yield were Maintained constantly while increasing ammonia concentration up to $3,500\;mgNH_4-N/L$ when swine wastewater collection pit was used as a seeding; however, those were decreased while increasing ammonia concentration when anaerobic digestion sludge was used as a seeding. The results indicate that the seeding acclimated to high concentrations of ammonia for long time was easy in adaptation to high ammonia concentration and less subjective to ammonia inhibitory effects.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.51-59
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• 2019

In this study, the influence of anaerobic digested sludge and 50 mM PBS (phosphate buffer solution) mixing ratio (1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1:5, 1:6, 1:7) on hydrogen production and inoculation period were examined. MECs were operated in fed-batch mode with an applied voltage of 0.9 V. As a result, in the 1:1 mixing ratio reactor, 9.8-20.9 mL of hydrogen was produced with the highest hydrogen content of 66.8-79.6%. Hydrogen gas production and power density increased from after 12 days of inoculation for the 1:1 mixing ratio reactor. In case of 1:2, 1:3 and 1:4 mixing ratio reactor, the hydrogen gas production was 3.7-7.1 mL and the hydrogen gas content was 5.8-65.8%. The hydrogen gas yield in 1:5, 1:6 and 1:7 ratio reactors, was 0.50-0.69 mL and hydrogen content range was 1.8-7.1%. The mixing ratio was found to be suitable for hydrogen production and inoculation period by mixing ratio up to 1:4.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.431-437
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• 2005

Molecular methods were employed to investigate microorganisms in a thermophilic continuous stirred tank reactor(CSTR) used for continuous $H_2$ production. The reactor was inoculated with heat-treated anaerobic sludge and fed with a glucose-based medium. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis showed dynamic changes of bacterial populations in the reactor during 43 days of operation. Gas composition was constant from approximately 14 days but population shift still occurred. Populations affiliated with Fervidobactrium gondwanens and Thermoanaerobacterium thermosaccharolyticum were dominant on 21 and 41 days, respectively. Keeping pH of the medium at 5.0 could suppress methanogenic activity that was detected during initial operation period. $CH_4$ and mcrA detected in the samples obtained from the reactor or inoculum suggested the heat treatment condition employed in this study is not enough to remove methanogens in the inoculum. PCR using primer sets specific to 4 main orders of methanogens suggested that major $H_2$-consuming methanogens in the CSTR belong to the order Methanobacteriales.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.533-539
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• 2016

This study was performed to evaluate the characteristics of start-up of anaerobic digestion from food waste with different inoculum ratios. The hydrogen yield was similar with different inoculum ratios. The hydrogen production rate increased with increasing inoculum ratio. But the specific hydrogen production rate decreased with increasing inoculum ratio. Total volatile fatty acids composition analysis showed that butyrate and acetate were the prevalent products in all reactors, followed by lactate and propionate. The acetate was most prevalent product in reactors at $X_0/S_0=0.080$ and 0.159. But in reactors at $X_0/S_0=0.239$ and 0.318, butyrate accounted for greater than 50% of the total volatile fatty acids.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 1997

Commercial inocula and mature compost were added separately to food wastes in order to compare the inoculating effect on garbage decomposition. Among commercial inocula available in the market, GM (Green Microorganisms) and EM (Effective Microorganisms) were selected as test inocula. Garbage decompostion were evaluated in Volatile Solid (VS) reduction and FDA (Fluorescein DiAcetate) hydrolysis activity. VS reduction with mature compost experiment was higher than that with GM-added one. VS reduction rates were about 32% with mature compost and 27% with GM. When food wastes were treated with GM and EM based on the manufacturer's specifications, GM-added and EM-added food wastes showed only 8% and 9% of VS reduction respectively, which are much lower than those with the mature compost. FDA hydrolysis activity increased during the first 10 days of active composting periods for the composting experiments, while it decreased continuously for the experiments based on manufacturer's specifications.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.112-117
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• 2000

Food waste is the main source of decay, odors and leachate in collection, transportation and landfill due to the high volatile solids (VS) and moisture content. Acidogenic fermentation of food waste is affected by the fermentation constraints including the biodegradability of substrate and the degrading capability of microorganisms. The biodegradability of food waste is mainly related to cellulosic materials, which are hardly degraded and comprise about 50% of food waste. The efficient and economical method of improving hydrolysis is, therefore, to apply microorganisms with increased cellulose-degrading capability. In this experiment, rumen microorganisms were inoculated to improve the low efficiency of acidogenic fermentation, and then compared with that of mesophilic acidogens. The fermentation of food waste in a leaching bed reactor employing rumen microorganisms resulted in the enhanced acidification (71.2% at $3.0d^{-1}$), which was higher than that (59.8% at $4.5d^{-1}$) employing mesophilic acidogens. This indicated that Rumen microorganisms had an enhanced waste-degrading capability.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.38 no.12
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• pp.635-640
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• 2016

Although microbial fuel cell (MFC) can produce electricity from organics in wastewater, nitrogen removal is required for application of process for wastewater treatment plant. This study developed flat-panel air-cathode MFCs (FA-MFCs) comprised of two large separator electrode assemblies (SEAs) and evaluate total nitrogen removal according to three inoculum sources and pre-nitrification acclimation. The nitrification efficiencies were >99% regardless of inoculum sources under the phase for pre-nitrification acclimation. The total nitrogen removal efficiencies of FA-MFCs without pre-nitrification acclimation were the highest at the low organic conditions (<300 mg-COD/L) under the phase for nitrification and denitrification. The increase of organic concentration influenced the total nitrogen removal efficiency, positively. The organics were removed >95% but were not used for heterotrophic denitrification totally. This study suggests that application of FA-MFC system for wastewater treatment can allow the simultaneous removal of organic and nitrogen compounds, although this affects the low electricity production.