Alkaline co-fermentation of municipal wastes for volatile fatty acids production

Volatile fatty acid (VFA) production via alkaline co-fermentation is an efficient strategy to maximize resource recovery from organic wastes. This study comprehensively investigated the effect of substrate proportions on alkaline co-fermentation of primary sludge (PS) and external organic waste (OW) at initial pH 10 with OW proportions of 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100% in terms of COD. Subsequently, an up-scaled semi-continuous experiment with 50% OW was performed at a set pH of 10 and 9 for 315 days to elucidate system robustness and microbial community dynamics.