Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Swine Wastewater, Cheese Whey and Organic Waste: Performance Optimization Through Mixture Design

Abstract

Anaerobic co-digestion of agro-industrial and municipal biowastes can enhance methane production, but the optimal mixture depends on nonlinear interactions among substrates. This study evaluated swine wastewater (SW), cheese whey (CW), and the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) under mesophilic batch conditions to quantify composition–response relationships and identify a robust operating window. A restricted simplex-centroid mixture design was tested; linear, quadratic, and special cubic models were fitted and evaluated using ANOVA, diagnostic plots, and optimization with desirability mapping. Cumulative methane yield (CMY) ranged between 251 and 295 NmL CH4 g VS−1 in the mixtures, outperforming SW as single component. All mixtures maintained neutral pH and moderate alkalinity ratios. The special cubic model provided the best performance (high R2 and R2pred) and revealed significant ternary interaction. The optimization indicated a composition near 63% SW, 10% CW, and 27% OFMSW with a predicted CMY of 300 NmL CH4 g VS−1; a high-performance band (desirability 0.90–1.00; corresponding to CMY ≥ 294.8) defined a robust window of ~60–66% SW, 6–20% CW, and 20–31% OFMSW. Overall, balanced ternary co-digestion showed synergistic effects beyond additive expectations, and the response surface model based on mixture design proved effective in capturing interactions and providing flexible guidance for practical implementation.