Synergisms and Antagonisms of Biomasses

Anaerobic Co-Digestion consists of the simultaneous digestion of two or more substrates. This technology has gained a lot of attention nowadays because it gives the possibility to significantly improve process performances (Croce et al. in Biotechnol Adv 34(8):1289–1304, 2016; Xie et al. in Bioresour Technol 222:498–512, 2016). Indeed, the digestion of a single substrate might lead to poor outcomes in terms of substrate utilization and methane yield due to the lack of some nutrients or non-optimal parameters. By co-digesting different substrates together, that show “complementary” characteristics, instead, methane yield and process stability can be significantly improved, and synergistic effects may be observed too. On the other hand, an improper choice of co-substrates could lead to a system imbalance and create antagonistic effects, reducing the methane generation to mono-digestion (Jain et al. in Renew Sustain Energy Rev 52:142–154, 2015; Siddique and Wahid in J Clean Prod 194(1):359–371, 2018).