Ana-Zyme P – Biocatalyst That Speeds Digestion of Proteins in Anaerobic Digesters

The Difficulty of Degrading Proteins Anaerobically

Anaerobic bacteria tend to be poorly specialized for the degradation of protein. Carbohydrates usually make better feed substrates than protein due to their high cBOD content and the low nitrogen requirements of anaerobic bacteria. Fat, oil, and grease—while usually undesirable in a digester—also have a high cBOD content. This means that anaerobic hydrolysis favors the degradation of fats and complex sugars, over the degradation of proteins. However, when broken down, protein provides valuable amino acids which improve production of naturally occurring anaerobic enzymes. When free amino acids are absent, anaerobic bacteria need to produce them using simple carbon substrates and ammonia, a process that takes additional metabolic steps and wastes carbon, making the process inefficient.

Ana-Zyme P improves anaerobic efficiency by outsourcing that extra metabolic step in the degradation of proteins so the anaerobic bacteria can focus their resources on breaking down carbon substrates and producing methane. This leads to improved methane generation, lowers effluent COD, and improved volatile solids destruction.