The Biogas Production Potential and Community Structure Characteristics of the Co-Digestion of Dairy Manure and Tomato Residues

Anaerobic digestion is an important means to turn agricultural waste into resources and an important way to address the challenges in treating vegetable residues in China. In this study, the co-digestion of dairy manure with tomato residue was investigated to clarify the effect of the total solids (TS) of the digestion substrate on methane’s production and mechanism using the self-made anaerobic digestion device. The results showed that all treatments could rapidly ferment methane and that the daily methane production showed a trend of increasing first and then decreasing. The optimal concentrations of the digestion substrate for liquid anaerobic digestion (L-AD), hemi-solid-state anaerobic digestion (HSS-AD), and solid-state anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) were 10%, 18%, and 25%, respectively. Compared with SS-AD and HSS-AD, L-AD gas production peaked 3–6 days earlier. Treatment TS25 had the best cumulative methane production, reaching 117.4 mL/g VS. However, treatment TS6 had acid accumulation and a very unstable system. The cumulative methane production of SS-AD was higher than that of HSS-AD and L-AD. Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes were the dominant flora, and Methanoculleus, Methanosarcina, and Methanobrevibacter were the main archaeal groups. The TS significantly changed the microbial community composition of the digestion system, especially the low TS treatment. The results presented herein indicated that TS significantly changed the bacterial and archaeal community composition of the digestion system, and thus with the increase in TS from 6% to 25%, the methane yield increased.