Hydraulic retention time affects stable acetate production from tofu processing wastewater in extreme-thermophilic (70 °C) mixed culture fermentation

Acetate is an important industrial chemical and its production from wastes via mixed culture fermentation (MCF) is economic. In this work, the effect of hydraulic retention time (HRT) on acetate production from tofu processing wastewater (TPW) in extreme-thermophilic (70 °C) MCF was first investigated. It was found that long HRT (>3 days) could lead to less acetate production while stable acetate production was achieved at short HRT (3 days) with the yield of 0.57 g-COD/g-CODTPW. The microbial community analysis showed that hydrogenotrophic methanogens (mainly Methanothermobacter) occupied up to 90% of archaea at both HRTs of 3 and 5 days. However, Coprothermobacter, the main acetate-degraders, decreased from 35.74% to 10.58% of bacteria when HRT decreased from 5 to 3 days, supporting the aggravation of syntrophic acetate oxidation in long HRT. This work demonstrated that HRT was a crucial factor to maintain stable acetate production from TPW in extreme-thermophilic MCF.