What is the seed inoculum?

[Haya]

"In field implementation of anaerobic digestion, the animal manure itself acts as seed inoculum and the process may reach its stability within 20-30 days of operation".

What is the meaning of seed inoculum?

[Haya]

????

[StringJunky]

It is seeded with a substance (the inoculum) that populates the digester with bacteria.

[Haya]

It is seeded with a substance (the inoculum) that populates the digester with bacteria.

Thank you but please, could you explain that in more details?

[jimmydasaint]

I thought SJ's explanation was pretty clear. Bacteria that operate in anaerobic conditions are found in the animal manure by the millions. These comprise acidogenic bacteria which make acid compounds from the waste products that are used to produce biofuel, and also methanogenic bacteria which use the products of the acidogenic bacteria to make methane and carbon dioxide. If you want to grow bacteria in larger and larger numbers, you always start with a small (seeding) population found in a small sample (inoculum). As soon as you drop the inoculum into a suitable nutrient liquid, the bacteria multiply in numbers at a logarithmic rate.

 

The process by which the inoculum seeding population would work is mentioned in this wiki link:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_digestion

 

 

The digestion process begins with bacterial hydrolysis of the input materials. Insoluble organic polymers, such as carbohydrates, are broken down to soluble derivatives that become available for other bacteria. Acidogenic bacteria then convert the sugars and amino acids into carbon dioxide, hydrogen, ammonia, and organic acids. These bacteria convert these resulting organic acids into acetic acid, along with additional ammonia, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. Finally, methanogens convert these products to methane and carbon dioxide.^[6] The methanogenic archaea populations play an indispensable role in anaerobic wastewater treatments.^[7]

Edited December 25, 2016 by jimmydasaint