Enhancement of thermophillic anaerobic digestion of methane by metal nanoparticles encapsulated in porous silica

[en] Increased demand and progressive depletion of fossil fuels, and worldwide concerns about greenhouse gas emissions have resulted in the development of promising technologies for renewable energy production. Therefore, potential alternatives for energy generation are intensively studied. One option is the use of biomass feedstock for the production of biogas through anaerobic digestion. This process is a biochemical technological process for the treatment of a wide range of feedstocks (e.g. organic fraction of municipal waste, animal manure and slurry, agricultural crops, etc.) to produce methane-rich biogas which can be used in replacement of fossil fuels in both heat and power generation and as a vehicle fuel. However, there are critical issues, which need to be addressed to make the production of bio-methane techno-economically viable and ecologically acceptable. One of the most important issues is the effect of trace metals addition on anaerobic digestion. These metals can be stimulatory, inhibitory, or even toxic for biochemical reactions, depending on their concentrations. As reported in literature, Ni, Co and Fe are all involved in the methane production biochemical process and serve as cofactors in enzymes which are involved in the biochemistry of methane formation (Zandvoort et al. 2006). Recently, enormous interest has been focused on biological applications of metal nanoparticles NPs due to their small size, high specified surface and their great potential in application to many science fields. The most studied process concerns zero valent palladium and iron NPs improving anaerobic biodegradation of chlorinated hydrocarbons (Windt et al. 2005). Moreover, investigation carried out in our lab showed that iron NPs encapsulated in silicate matrix may enhance hydrogen production by Clostridium butyricum (Beckers et al. 2013). Nevertheless the influences of metal NPs on methane producing anaerobic digestion have seldom been investigated.The present work investigates the enhancement effect of seven different metal NPs on methane production during the thermophilic anaerobic digestion. NPs of Cu, Pd, Pt, Ni, Co, Ag and Fe encapsulated in porous silica (SiO2) to prevent their coagulation and agglomeration, were added at concentration of 10-5mol/L in batch test (125ml serum bottles containing 70mL culture medium with 5g/L acetate monohydrate as the sole carbon substrate. Nickel, cobalt and iron NPs improved methane production from acetate. To confirm the previous results, the NPs were tested at different concentrations (10-4, 10-5, and 10-6 mol/L) with starch and glucose substrates. The results show that the impact increases with the increase of NPs concentrations up to 10-4 mol/L. The modified Gompertz equation was applied to describe the effect of NPs on anaerobic digestion. According to this model, the kinetic of methane production was particularly affected by nanoparticles addition. The values of the maximum methane production rate MPR (ml/day) was significantly higher 72.5% with nickel NPs at a concentration of 10-4 mol/L than the control without NPs.