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Journal of Environmental Sciences 20(2008) 297–303 Enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of flower stem wastes with vegetable wastes by co-hydrolysis ZHANG Bo, HE Pinjing ,L ¨ U Fan, SHAO Liming State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. [email protected] Received 21 May 2007; revised 10 September 2007; accepted 20 October 2007 Abstract The vegetable wastes and flower stems were co-digested to evaluate the anaerobic hydrolysis performance of dicultly biodegradable organic wastes by introducing readily biodegradable organic wastes. The experiments were carried out in batches. When the vegetable wastes were mixed with the flower stems at the dry weight ratio of 1 to 13, the overall hydrolysis rate increased by 8%, 12%, and 2% according to the carbon, nitrogen, and total solid (TS) conversion rate, respectively. While the dry weight ratio was designed as 1 to 3, there was a respective rise of 5%, 15%, and 4% in the conversion rate of carbon, nitrogen, and TS. The enhancement of anaerobic hydrolysis from the mixed vegetable wastes and flower stems can be attributed to the formation of volatile fatty acids (VFA) and nutrient supplement like nitrogen content. The maximum VFA concentration can achieve 1.7 g/L owing to the rapid acidification of vegetable wastes, loosing the structure of lignocellulose materials. The statistic bivariate analysis revealed that the hydrolysis performance was significantly related to the physical and biochemical compositions of the feeding substrate. Especially, the soluble carbon concentration in the liquid was significantly positively correlated to the concentration of nitrogen and hemicellulose, and negatively correlated to the concentration of carbon and lignocellulose in the feeding substrate, suggesting that the regulation and control of feedstock can have an important influence on the anaerobic hydrolysis of organic wastes. Key words: municipal solid wastes; hydrolysis; feedstock characteristics; VFA; bivariate analysis Introduction Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is nowadays a critical concern in China. However, current practices still count on the landfill of untreated, unsorted waste as the main disposal route. High biodegradable organic matter in the MSW leads to severe issues of public health and environmental pollution, especially the emission of leachate and landfill gas (He et al., 2003). Sustainable waste management that favors waste recycling and re- covery is considered to have the highest profits for the environment. Anaerobic digestion of organic solid wastes oers the advantage of both energy and fertilizer benefit (Hartmann and Ahring, 2005). Therefore, anaerobic diges- tion is envisaged to be an important addition to the list of options available for managing MSW. The anaerobic digestion of vegetable and food residues has obtained very promising results owing to their high biodegradability (Xu et al., 2002; Bouallagui et al., 2004; Zhang et al., 2005). However, for the dicultly biodegradable organic wastes containing high content of lignocellulose and cellulose, for example, plant stems, the anaerobic digestion process will be limited and the biogas yield will be consequently reduced owing to their complex * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]. structure (Converti et al., 1997). Generally, acid and alkali conditions involving high temperature and high pressure are applied to pretreat this kind of organic wastes (Vlysside and Karlis, 2004), yet their decomposition products are considered to be non-biodegradable and are not favorable to the subsequent anaerobic digestion process; moreover, chemical pretreatment is very expensive (Converti et al., 1997). Thereby, it is necessary to look for a milder and cost-eective way to improve the hydrolysis of the organic wastes containing lignocellulose and cellulose. The formation of organic acids and ethanol from glucose will play an important role in enhancing the hydrolysis of lignocellulose (Yu et al., 2004). It was also proved that mild acids can loosen the structure of lignocellulose resulting in an improved overall rate of hydrolysis owing to the increased accessibility of enzymes (Cassini et al., 2005). Hereinto, it can be deduced that the formation of VFA from readily biodegradable organic wastes can help the degradation of dicultly biodegradable organic wastes containing lignocellulose. At present, the performance of the anaerobic digestion process was improved by regulat- ing the type of organic wastes fed considering the pH buer and nutrient adjustment (Callaghan et al., 2002; Kaparaju et al., 2005). Nevertheless, there is still scarce information about the contribution of readily biodegradable organic

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Page 1: Enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of flower stem wastes with vegetable wastes by co-hydrolysis

Journal of Environmental Sciences 20(2008) 297–303

Enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of flower stem wastes withvegetable wastes by co-hydrolysis

ZHANG Bo, HE Pinjing∗, LU Fan, SHAO Liming

State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, College of EnvironmentalScience and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China. [email protected]

Received 21 May 2007; revised 10 September 2007; accepted 20 October 2007

AbstractThe vegetable wastes and flower stems were co-digested to evaluate the anaerobic hydrolysis performance of difficultly biodegradable

organic wastes by introducing readily biodegradable organic wastes. The experiments were carried out in batches. When the vegetable

wastes were mixed with the flower stems at the dry weight ratio of 1 to 13, the overall hydrolysis rate increased by 8%, 12%, and 2%

according to the carbon, nitrogen, and total solid (TS) conversion rate, respectively. While the dry weight ratio was designed as 1 to

3, there was a respective rise of 5%, 15%, and 4% in the conversion rate of carbon, nitrogen, and TS. The enhancement of anaerobic

hydrolysis from the mixed vegetable wastes and flower stems can be attributed to the formation of volatile fatty acids (VFA) and nutrient

supplement like nitrogen content. The maximum VFA concentration can achieve 1.7 g/L owing to the rapid acidification of vegetable

wastes, loosing the structure of lignocellulose materials. The statistic bivariate analysis revealed that the hydrolysis performance was

significantly related to the physical and biochemical compositions of the feeding substrate. Especially, the soluble carbon concentration

in the liquid was significantly positively correlated to the concentration of nitrogen and hemicellulose, and negatively correlated to the

concentration of carbon and lignocellulose in the feeding substrate, suggesting that the regulation and control of feedstock can have an

important influence on the anaerobic hydrolysis of organic wastes.

Key words: municipal solid wastes; hydrolysis; feedstock characteristics; VFA; bivariate analysis

Introduction

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management is nowadays

a critical concern in China. However, current practices

still count on the landfill of untreated, unsorted waste

as the main disposal route. High biodegradable organic

matter in the MSW leads to severe issues of public health

and environmental pollution, especially the emission of

leachate and landfill gas (He et al., 2003). Sustainable

waste management that favors waste recycling and re-

covery is considered to have the highest profits for the

environment. Anaerobic digestion of organic solid wastes

offers the advantage of both energy and fertilizer benefit

(Hartmann and Ahring, 2005). Therefore, anaerobic diges-

tion is envisaged to be an important addition to the list of

options available for managing MSW.

The anaerobic digestion of vegetable and food residues

has obtained very promising results owing to their high

biodegradability (Xu et al., 2002; Bouallagui et al.,2004; Zhang et al., 2005). However, for the difficultly

biodegradable organic wastes containing high content of

lignocellulose and cellulose, for example, plant stems, the

anaerobic digestion process will be limited and the biogas

yield will be consequently reduced owing to their complex

* Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].

structure (Converti et al., 1997). Generally, acid and alkali

conditions involving high temperature and high pressure

are applied to pretreat this kind of organic wastes (Vlysside

and Karlis, 2004), yet their decomposition products are

considered to be non-biodegradable and are not favorable

to the subsequent anaerobic digestion process; moreover,

chemical pretreatment is very expensive (Converti et al.,1997). Thereby, it is necessary to look for a milder and

cost-effective way to improve the hydrolysis of the organic

wastes containing lignocellulose and cellulose.

The formation of organic acids and ethanol from glucose

will play an important role in enhancing the hydrolysis

of lignocellulose (Yu et al., 2004). It was also proved

that mild acids can loosen the structure of lignocellulose

resulting in an improved overall rate of hydrolysis owing

to the increased accessibility of enzymes (Cassini et al.,2005). Hereinto, it can be deduced that the formation of

VFA from readily biodegradable organic wastes can help

the degradation of difficultly biodegradable organic wastes

containing lignocellulose. At present, the performance of

the anaerobic digestion process was improved by regulat-

ing the type of organic wastes fed considering the pH buffer

and nutrient adjustment (Callaghan et al., 2002; Kaparaju

et al., 2005). Nevertheless, there is still scarce information

about the contribution of readily biodegradable organic

Page 2: Enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of flower stem wastes with vegetable wastes by co-hydrolysis

298 ZHANG Bo et al. Vol. 20

wastes to the decomposition of difficultly biodegradable

organic wastes.

In this study, the co-hydrolysis of vegetable wastes and

flower stems was studied to evaluate the interaction among

the different types of biochemical components of the di-

gested wastes. The direct association between the physical

and biochemical compositions of organic wastes fed and

the hydrolysis performance were statistically established.

1 Materials and methods

1.1 Compositions and characteristics of feeding veg-etable wastes and flower stems

Vegetable wastes, the readily biodegradable wastes, and

flower stems, the difficultly biodegradable wastes were

sampled from a vegetable and flower market, respectively.

The vegetable wastes included cabbage and celery, while

the flower wastes consisted of rose and lily. There were

four parallel operated hydrolysis reactors (Run-1, Run-

2, Run-3, and Run-4). At Run-1, the reactor was filled

with vegetable wastes, and at Run-2, it was loaded with

flower stems. At Run-3 and Run-4, the vegetable wastes

and flower stems were mixed as the dry weight ratio of

1:13 and 1:3, respectively. The physical and biochemical

compositions of the mixed wastes are indicated in Table 1.

The wastes were smashed in a blender to an average size

below 3 cm.

1.2 Experimental setup and operation

The scheme of anaerobic hydrolysis of the mixed wastes

is shown in Fig.1. Four parallel-operated hydrolysis re-

actors had the same dimensions with working volume of

1.4 L and were operated under the same conditions. The

process control was carried out in batches. The vegetable

and flower wastes were filled into the hydrolysis reactor

after mixing and the methanogenic effluent of 0.5 L was

sequentially pumped into it. After 2 d of recirculation, the

outlet from the hydrolysis reactor was discharged into the

storage container, and then the fresh methanogenic effluent

was fed into the hydrolysis reactor from the top over again

and the above-mentioned operation was repeated. The

methanogenic effluent was taken from an upflow anaerobic

filter. The total organic carbon (TOC) concentration in the

methanogenic effluent was lower than 200 mg/L and the

pH was 7.8–7.9. The experiment was carried out in the

temperature range of 33–37°C.

Table 1 Physical and biochemical compositions of the sampled organic

wastes

Reactor number Run-1 Run-2 Run-3 Run-4

TS (%) 6.7 89.4 48.1 23.2

VS (%) 83.5 76.4 76.9 78.0

C (%) 61.7 70.3 69.6 68.2

N (%) 5.0 2.6 2.8 3.2

Cellulose (%) 5.2 26.7 13.6 12.1

Lignocellulose (%) 10.9 14.5 14.2 13.7

Hemicellulose (%) 25.0 15.8 16.4 17.9

Total sugar (%) 10.4 10.7 10.6 10.6

TS: total solid; WS: waste solid.

Fig. 1 Scheme of anaerobic hydrolysis of vegetable wastes and flower

stems.

1.3 Analytical methods

1.3.1 Chemical analysispH, TS, volatile solid (VS), and Kjeldahl nitrogen (KN)

were analyzed according to standard methods (APHA,

1998). The total carbon (TC) and total nitrogen (TN) were

measured by a TC/TN analyzer (Multi N/C 3000, Ana-

lytik Jena, Germany). The elements of carbon, hydrogen,

nitrogen, and sulfur of solid materials were measured by

an elemental analyzer (CHNS-900, LECO, USA). The

culture media were centrifuged at 4000×g for 10 min.

After filtered by 0.45 µm polyester films, the supernatant

was measured for VFA (LC-20AD, Shimadzu, Japan).

The measurement of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lig-

nocellulose was based on the analysis of neutral detergent

fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and ash contents

of the materials (Goering and van Soest, 1970). For the

determination of total sugar, the dry solid sample was first

pretreated by boiled HCl solution (6 mol/L), and then the 3,

5-dinitrosalycylic acid method was applied (Miller, 1959;

Nielsen, 2002).

1.3.2 Extracellular enzyme activity assayA 10-ml sample of the hydrolysis liquid was first

centrifuged at 3000×g for 10 min, and then the super-

natant was collected and used for the measurement of

carboxymethyl cellulose enzyme (CMCase) activity. The

samples were incubated with carboxymethyl cellulose in

sodium acetate buffer (pH 4.8, 0.2 mol/L), and pre-warmed

to the incubation temperature of 60°C (Nakamura and

Kitamura, 1988).

1.4 Statistical analysis

Statistical analyses utilized SPSS 14.0 (SPSS, Inc.,

Chicago, USA). The dependence of hydrolysis perfor-

mance on a single physical and chemical factor was

analyzed by bivariate regression analysis.

2 Results

2.1 Soluble TC and TN in the liquid phase

Soluble TC and TN are the parameters that represent

the hydrolysis extent. The hydrolysis of organic matter at

four feeding compositions in terms of accumulated TC is

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No. 3 Enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of flower stem wastes with vegetable wastes by co-hydrolysis 299

shown in Fig.2a. The accumulated TC shows the highest

solubilization when vegetable wastes were fed at Run-1,

followed by the mixed vegetable wastes and flower stems

at Run-4 and Run-3, and the flower stems fed at Run-2 in

order. The maximum solubilization of carbon expressed as

TC can be 723, 296, 380, and 450 mg/g at Run-1, Run-2,

Run-3, and Run-4, respectively. The overall solubilization

of carbon at Run-3 and Run-4 was 13% more than the

combination of single wastes fed if taking no account of

the synergism among different types of wastes.

It can be seen from Fig.2b that adding the vegetable

wastes into the flower stems increased the soluble TN

concentration in the hydrolysis liquid. The TN solubi-

lization of about 691, 463, 518, and 639 mg/g at Run-1,

Run-2, Run-3, and Run-4 was obtained at the end of the

designed experimental period of 16 d, respectively. The

overall hydrolysis of nitrogen at Run-3 and Run-4 was

5% and 14% more according to the calculation from the

conversion rate of vegetable wastes and flower stems fed

at Run-1 and Run-2.

2.2 pH in the liquid phase

From Fig.3, it is seen that the addition of the vegetable

wastes caused a rapid drop of pH as compared to the

scenario of flower stems fed. The pH in the hydrolysis

reactors including the vegetable wastes decreased to the

minimum value (5.5–6) on day 6 of the experiment, while

the pH remained above 7 as for the flower stems fed at

Run-2.

2.3 VFA and reducing sugar

The VFA and reducing sugar in the hydrolysis products

were detected, whereas lactic acid could not be observed.

Fig.4 presents the variations of VFA and accumulated

VFA concentration in the hydrolysis liquid. The VFA

concentration had a peak value on days 6 and 8. The

VFA and accumulated VFA concentration at Run-1 were

3 times more than that at Run-2. The accumulated VFA

concentration was 189, 57, 71, and 62 mg/g, accounting

for about 27%, 19%, 19%, and 14% of TC in the hydrolysis

liquid for Run-1, Run-2, Run-3, and Run-4 at the end of the

experimental period, respectively.

As indicated in Fig.5, the reducing sugar concentration

at Run-1 was considerably lower than that at other reactors.

The variations of accumulated reducing sugar concen-

tration at Run-3 and Run-4 were similar. The maximal

concentration of 15 mg/g was obtained at Run-2, followed

by Run-3 and Run-4, and Run-1. The accumulated reduc-

ing sugar concentration accounted for about 0.4%, 5%,

3%, and 2% of TC in the hydrolysis liquid, respectively.

2.4 Conversion of TS, carbon, and nitrogen

It can be seen from Fig.6 that the conversion rates of

TS, carbon, and nitrogen at Run-1 were achieved 84%,

85%, and 94%, followed by Run-4, Run-3, and Run-2 in

sequence. The conversion rates of TS, carbon, and nitrogen

for the flower stems increased, when the vegetable wastes

were brought in. The total conversion rates of TS, carbon,

and nitrogen had a respective rise of about 2%, 8%, and

12% for Run-3, and about 4%, 5%, and 15% for Run-4

according to the calculation from the conversion rate of

vegetable wastes and flower stems at Run-1 and Run-2.

Figure 7 shows the degradation of hemicellulose,

cellulose, lignocellulose, and total sugar based on the

calculation from the mass balance. The conversion rate of

cellulose obviously increased after the vegetable wastes

were added into the flower stems. However, the hemicel-

Fig. 3 pH in the hydrolysis liquid.

Fig. 2 Accumulated TC (a) and TN (b) concentration in the hydrolysis liquid. Run-1: vegetable wastes; Run-2: flower stems; Run-3: vegetable

wastes:flower stems=1:13; Run-4: vegetable wastes:flower stems=1:3.

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300 ZHANG Bo et al. Vol. 20

Fig. 4 VFA (a) and accumulated VFA (b) concentration in the hydrolysis liquid.

Fig. 5 Reducing sugar (a) and accumulated reducing sugar (b) concentration in the hydrolysis liquid.

lulose content in the residual wastes was higher than in the

feeding wastes, as a result of lignocellulose degradation.

2.5 Variations of extracellular enzyme activity

The CMCase activity at Run-2 and Run-3 was higher

than that at Run-4 and Run-1 (Fig.8). The CMCase activity

in the four reactors differed with different substrates fed. It

is tightly related to the substrate compositions (Parawira etal., 2005). Even if the hydrolysis rate of vegetable wastes

was higher than flower stems, the CMCase activity in the

hydrolysis reactor containing vegetable wastes showed the

minimum value.

2.6 Association of hydrolysis with physical and bio-chemical compositions

Table 2 shows that bivariate correlation analysis be-

tween the hydrolysis performance and the physical and

biochemical compositions of feeding wastes. The soluble

TC, TN, VFA, and the reducing sugar concentration in

the hydrolysis liquid were related to the carbon, nitrogen,

TS content, hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignocellulose

as well in the feeding substrate. The TC concentration

was significantly positively correlated to nitrogen and

hemicellulose, and negatively correlated to carbon and

lignocellulose. The TN concentration was negatively cor-

related to the TS content. The VFA concentration was

positively correlated to the nitrogen content, and nega-

tively correlated to lignocellulose and hemicellulose. The

reducing sugar concentration was positively correlated to

lignocellulose and negatively correlated to hemicellulose.

Page 5: Enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of flower stem wastes with vegetable wastes by co-hydrolysis

No. 3 Enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of flower stem wastes with vegetable wastes by co-hydrolysis 301

Fig. 6 Conversion rate of TS, C, and N.

3 Discussion

The anaerobic hydrolysis of the mixed wastes realized

mass and volume reduction, but the hydrolysis yield was

affected by the constituents of wastes feedstock (Chanakya

et al., 1999; Nguyen et al., 2007). The hydrolysis of

vegetable wastes was two times higher than flower stems

according to the solubilization of carbon. Adding the

vegetable wastes improved the hydrolysis of the flower

stems. For the hydrolysis of the difficultly biodegradable

flower stems, about 30% of carbon contained in the wastes

was converted in the leachate form; however, when the

vegetable wastes were mixed with these, more than 50%

Fig. 7 Conversion rate of hemicellulose, cellulose, lignocellulose, and

total sugar.

of carbon was converted. The introduction of vegetable

wastes into the flower stems obviously enhanced the

overall solubilization of carbon and nitrogen, and the

degradation of TS, which can be attributed to the weak

acid environment caused by the rapid acidogenesis of the

vegetable wastes and the supplement of nutrients (Cassini

et al., 2005).

The cellulose and hemicellulose are difficultly

biodegradable mainly owing to their intimate combination

with lignin (Ren et al., 1996). The initial reaction in

the process of organic acids pretreatment involves a

mild acid-catalyzed hydrolysis of the glycosidic bonds

of hemicellulose and the α-ether linkage in lignin, in

Table 2 Bivariate correlation analysis between the hydrolysis characteristics and chemical compositions of feeding wastes

Hydrolysis characteristics Carbon Carbon conver- Cellulose Hemicellulose Lignocellulose Nitrogen Reducing

(%VS) sion rate (%) (%VS) (%VS) (%VS) (%VS) sugar (mg/g)

Carbon (%VS) 1 –0.484 0.870 –0.916* 0.941 –0.911 0.865

Carbon conversion rate (%) –0.484 1 –0.316 0.789 –0.748 0.800 –0.801

Cellulose (%VS) 0.870 –0.316 1 –0.720 –0.756 –0.723 0.816

Hemicellulose (%VS) –0.916 0.789 –0.720 1 –0.998** 1.000** –0.951*

Lignocellulose (%VS) 0.941 –0.748 –0.756 –0.998** 1 0.996** 0948*

Nitrogen (%VS) –0.911 0.800 –0.723 0.816 0.996** 1 –0.958*

Reducing sugar (mg/g) 0.865 –0.801 0.816 –0.951* 0948* –0.958* 1

TC (mg/g) –0.907* 0.796 –0.788 0.986** –0.985** 0.990** –0.989**

TN (mg/g) –0.144 0.894* –0.093 0.490 –0.435 0.509 –0.587

Total sugar (%VS) –0.520 –0.493 –0.592 0.135 –0.200 0.120 –0.099

TS (%) 0.455 –0.865 0.531 0.677 0.647 –0.696 0.836

TS conversion rate (%) –0.579 0.993** –0.386 0.854 –0.818 –0.863 –0.848

VS (%TS) 0.165 0.777 0.316 0.244 –0.179 0.258 –0.256

VFA (mg/g) –0.761 0.883* –0.519 0.942* –0.927* 0.943* –0.870

Hydrolysis characteristics TC TN Total TS TS conversion VS VFA

(mg/g) (mg/g) sugar (%VS) (%) rate (%) (%TS) (mg/g)

Carbon (%VS) –0.907* –0.144 –0.520 0.455 –0.579 0.165 –0.761

Carbon conversion rate (%) 0.796 0.894* –0.493 –0.865 0.993** 0.777 0.883*

Cellulose (%VS) –0.788 –0.093 –0.592 0.531 –0.386 0.316 –0.519

Hemicellulose (%VS) 0.986** 0.490 0.135 0.677 0.854 0.244 0.942*

Lignocellulose (%VS) –0.985** –0.435 –0.200 0.647 –0.818 –0.179 –0.927*

Nitrogen (%VS) 0.990** 0.509 0.120 –0.696 –0.863 0.258 0.943*

Reducing sugar (mg/g) –0.989** –0.587 –0.099 0.836 –0.848 –0.256 –0.870

TC (mg/g) 1 0.536 –0.133 –0.763 0.854 0.239 0.912*

TN (mg/g) 0.536 1 –0.703 –0.883* 0.849 0.870 0.580

Total sugar (%VS) –0.133 –0.703 1 0.346 –0.394 –0.928* –0.124

TS (%) –0.763 –0.883* 0.346 1 –0.848 –0.586 –0.667

TS conversion rate (%) 0.854 0.849 –0.394 –0.848 1 0.706 0.920*

VS (%TS) 0.239 0.870 –0.928* –0.586 0.706 1 0.475

VFA (mg/g) 0.912* 0.580 –0.124 –0.667 –0.667 0.475 1

* corresponds to 0.01 confidence level; ** corresponds to 0.05 confidence level.

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302 ZHANG Bo et al. Vol. 20

Fig. 8 CMCase activity in the hydrolysis liquid.

which the organic acids, formed by cleavage of the

labile ester groups, catalyze the hemicellulose hydrolysis.

The fraction is achieved by an enlargement of the inner

surface (Schmidt and Thomsen, 1998). The VFA can be

continuously produced owing to the addition of vegetable

wastes, and the maximal VFA concentration can reach

1.7 g/L. The pH in the hydrolysis liquid decreased from

7.8–7.9 to 5.6. VFA functioned as a conditioning to the

structure of lignocellulose and cellulose, making the

extracellulose enzyme easily accessible to the surface

of the material (Yu et al., 2004). Successful mixing of

different wastes can result in better digestion performance

by improving the content of the nutrients and can

even reduce the negative effect of toxic compounds on

the digestion process (Murto et al., 2004). From the

point of physical and biochemical compositions, some

compositions, such as moisture and nitrogen source

had an obvious influence on the hydrolysis of organic

wastes (Misi and Forster, 2001; Sponza and Agdag, 2004;

Sanphoti et al., 2006). It was found from the bivariate

analysis in this study that the increase of nitrogen and

hemicellulose content was favorable to the solubilization

of carbon expressed as TC. The increase of nitrogen could

meet the need of microbial nutrients for the hydrolysis

of organic wastes rich in carbon (Altaf et al., 2007;

Ohkouchi and Inoue, 2007). The single hemicellulose

matter was considered as easily biodegradable, while

the lignocellulose matter was difficultly biodegradable.

The addition of vegetable wastes increased the nitrogen

and hemicellulose content, resulting in the improved

hydrolysis rate.

4 Conclusions

The introduction of vegetable wastes into the flower

stems can increase the overall hydrolysis rate of the mixed

organic wastes, caused by the VFA formation and nutrient

supplement from the hydrolysis of vegetable wastes. The

soluble carbon concentration in the liquid was significantly

positively correlated to the concentration of nitrogen and

hemicellulose, and negatively correlated to the concentra-

tion of carbon and lignocellulose in the feeding substrate.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Technol-

ogy Research and Development Program of China (No.

2006BAC02A03), the Key Project of Chinese Ministry of

Education (No. 107122), the 2006 Shanghai-Rhone Alpes

Region (France) Scientific Research Cooperation Fund

(No. 06SR07105), and the China Postdoctoral Science

Foundation (No. 20060390653).

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