As more states ban food waste from landfills, investigation into alternate disposal methods is becoming increasingly important. Anaerobic digestion provides a path to repurpose organic waste, promote nutrient recovery, and produce renewable energy. Environmental Engineer Amy DeCola, EIT recently published ‘Microbiome assembly and stability during start-up of a full-scale, two-phase anaerobic digester fed cow manure and mixed organic feedstocks’ in Bioresource Technology.
This research analyzes microbial community dynamics using metagenomic sequencing during start-up through stable operation of full-scale, on-farm digester co-digesting cow manure and food waste.
These results provide insight into microbial community dynamics and can inform digester start-up operations. You can read it here and reach out to her with any questions you may have! (You can also read more about repurposing waste from her thesis research in her blog here.)
