Effect of Rice Straw on Methane Production Potential of Cow Manure

BACKGROUND: Animal manures are one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases and improper manage-ment of animal wastes contributes to the increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Con-verting greenhouse gases generated from animal manures to energy is one way of contributing to the net-zero carbon emissions. METHODS AND RESULTS: The potential for methane production from cow manure (CM) was studied by meas-uring the methane yield using the biochemical methane potential (BMP) test. In particular, the effect of co-diges-tion using rice straw (RM) on the methane production was studied. The methane yields from the co-digestion of CM and RS were statistically similar to that from the mono-di-gestion of CM or RS. But there was a synergy effect at the CM:RS ratio of 1:2 and 1:1. This can be attributed to the increased C/N ratio. The changed microbial community structure with the addition of substrates (CM, RS) prob-ably led to the increase in the methane produc-tion. CONCLUSION(S): The methane production potential of the particular CM used in this study was not improved by the addition of RS as a co-substrate. The addition of substrates to the anaerobic sludge promoted the increase in the microbial species having synergetic relationship with methano-gens, and this can partially explain the increase in the methane production with the addition of substrates. Overall, there are needs for further studies to improve the methane yield from CM.