One of the major obstacles for thermophilic anaerobic digestion is the process instability during start-up. This study proposed the use of a cost-effective additive, biochar, to accelerate and stabilize the start-up of thermophilic semi-continuous food waste anaerobic digestion. The results showed that the reactors with biochar addition resulted in up to 18% higher methane yield as compared to the control reactors (without biochar). The key microbial networks were elucidated through thermochemical and microbial analysis. Particularly, the addition of biochar promoted the growth of electroactive Clostridia and other electroactive bacteria, while the absence of biochar promoted the growth of homoacetogenic Clostridia and syntrophic acetate oxidizing bacteria. It was revealed that biochar promoted direct interspecies electron transfer between the microbes and was responsible for the faster degradation of volatile fatty acids. Furthermore, reactors with biochar also enhanced the thermodynamically favourable acetoclastic methanogenic pathway due to the higher abundance of Methanosarcina.

高温厌氧消化的主要障碍之一是启动过程中的工艺不稳定。这项研究提出使用具有成本效益的添加剂生物炭来加速和稳定嗜热半连续食物垃圾厌氧消化的启动。结果表明，与对照反应器（无生物炭）相比，添加生物炭的反应器可将甲烷产率提高多达18％。通过热化学和微生物分析阐明了关键的微生物网络。特别地，生物炭的加入促进了电活性梭菌和其他电活性细菌的生长，而生物炭的缺乏促进了同产乙酸的梭菌的生长。和腐殖酸的乙酸氧化细菌。结果表明，生物炭促进了微生物之间的直接种间电子转移，并导致了挥发性脂肪酸的更快降解。此外，由于甲烷藻的丰度较高，具有生物炭的反应器还增强了热力学上有利的破弹甲烷化途径。