Construction and evaluation of a dry anaerobic digestion reactor for the degradation of solid waste from the textile industry with the use of fungal keratinolytic strains

Twenty-three fungal strains were isolated from solid waste generated in the processing of alpaca and sheep wool from the company Inca Tops S. A. in Arequipa-Peru, as well as from cow rumen. Quantitative analyzes were carried out resulting in the selection of 5 microbial strains: Aspergillus sp., Fusarium oxysporum, Aspergillus sp., Fusarium oxysporum, and Fusarium sp. An experimental dry anaerobic digestion (DAD) reactor with 20L capacity was built, the configuration of which was made taking into account a one-stage batch system with feed recirculation and biomass ratio of 2:1 working at room temperature. Evaluation of the dry anaerobic digester was performed comparing the initial and final biomass after 60 days operation time, resulting in a decrease in the percentage of total solids from 37.91% to 28.82%, volatile solids percentage from 19.64% to 15.71%, chemical oxygen demand from 2 080.19 mg/Kg to 1414.63mg/Kg, and pH from 7.35 to 7.15.