Higher Plant Waste Fiber Degradation by Biological Treatment

This work concerns the degradation of waste plant materials by anaerobic digestion using a rumen bacterium: Fibrobacter succinogenes in a similar reactor as the first compartment of MELiSSA. The fermentation process is studied, both for engineering aspects and the metabolic response of the strain. The process is controlled by measurements of pH, redox, temperature and CO₂ pressure. During the fermentation it appears that Fibrobacter succinogenes is able to grow and to degrade all the solid substrates separately and allows an efficient degradation (59–64 %) of vegetable wastes, with a high production of acetate, butyrate (8 g/l of each), N-NH₃ (800 mg/l) and CO₂ (20 l). The results enable to quantify the so called liquefaction efficiency of the culture.