A critical review on bioaugmentation assisted anaerobic digestion for methane production: Performances, microbiome-functionalities and challenges.

Abstract

Bioaugmentation technology is considered as a straightforward approach to improve anaerobic digestion performances, with advantages of high efficiency and sustainability. However, the mechanisms and challenges of bioaugmentation in anaerobic digestion have yet to been well reviewed. In this review, the advantages of bioaugmentation in anaerobic digestion are systematically identified and discussed, covering enhancing anaerobic digestion process, relieving toxic inhibition of ammonia, and overcoming limitation of psychrophilic anaerobic digestion. This review find that the underlying mechanisms of bioaugmentation enhancing anaerobic digestion are the improvement of microbial community metabolism activity, interspecies electron transfer, and microbial adaptability to environment stress. In addition, future challenges and research directions are discussed from theoretical and practical perspectives, including preparation of bioaugmentation microorganisms, immobilization of bioaugmentation microorganisms, and economic feasibility of bioaugmentation technology. This review contributes to understanding the positive effect of bioaugmentation on anaerobic digestion and promoting the applicability of bioaugmentation technology in anaerobic digestion.