Enhancing volatile fatty acid production in pig manure

In this work, a short thermal pretreatment was applied to different inocula: anaerobic sludge from a pig wastewater treatment plant, anaerobic sludge from a brewery wastewater treatment plant, and anaerobic sludge from an urban wastewater treatment, to enhance the production of volatile fatty acids (VFA) during the fermentation of pig manure. Overall, the application of the short thermal pretreatment resulted in a significant increase in VFA production across the three inocula.