Wang Zhuoqin, Wang Ruming, Yuan Haiping, Zhu Nanwen
Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Solid Waste Treatment and Recovery, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Solid Waste Treatment and Recovery, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Water Res. 2025 Jul 30;287(Pt A):124322. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2025.124322.
Anaerobic digestion (AD), a promising technology for waste activated sludge (WAS) stabilization, is significantly limited by the low generation efficiency of methane. In this study, an iron-copper (Fe-Cu) microelectrolysis method to improve AD efficiency was introduced. Results showed that the methane production rate increased up to 34.4 % and the volatile solids (VS) removal rate of 33.3 % treated with Fe-Cu microelectrolysis. It could be found that alkaline protease and glucosidase activities exhibited relative increases of approximately 273 % and 62.2 % respectively to accelerate hydrolysis, while acetate kinase and coenzyme F activities showed relative increases of 93.6 % and 203 % which directly drove the methanogenic rate elevation. Microbial community analysis showed that preferential enrichment of electroactive genera (e.g., Methanosaeta) and syntrophic consortia, synergistically facilitated by Fe-Cu-mediated electron transfer pathway shift from interspecies hydrogen transfer (IHT) to direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET). PICRUSt2 functional predictions showed that Fe-Cu increased the abundances of most methanogens and genes encoding related enzymes. This study pioneers Fe-Cu microelectrolysis as a dual-functional enhancer for both substrate hydrolysis and DIET-driven methanogenesis, offering a transformative approach for sludge valorization.
厌氧消化（AD）是一种用于稳定废弃活性污泥（WAS）的有前景的技术，但甲烷生成效率低显著限制了该技术的应用。本研究引入了一种铁铜（Fe-Cu）微电解方法来提高AD效率。结果表明，经Fe-Cu微电解处理后，甲烷产率提高了34.4%，挥发性固体（VS）去除率达到33.3%。可以发现，碱性蛋白酶和葡糖苷酶活性分别相对增加了约273%和62.2%，以加速水解，而乙酸激酶和辅酶F活性分别相对增加了93.6%和203%，直接推动了产甲烷速率的提高。微生物群落分析表明，电活性菌属（如甲烷八叠球菌属）和互营菌群的优先富集，在Fe-Cu介导的电子传递途径从种间氢转移（IHT）转变为直接种间电子传递（DIET）的协同作用下得到促进。PICRUSt2功能预测表明，Fe-Cu增加了大多数产甲烷菌和编码相关酶的基因的丰度。本研究率先将Fe-Cu微电解作为底物水解和DIET驱动产甲烷的双功能增强剂，为污泥资源化提供了一种变革性方法。
