🌿Protein Nanofibers: A Triple-Action Boost for Anaerobic Digestion

Romina Shirazi and collaborators at #QueensU have developed bovine serum albumin protein nanofibers (PNFs) — a sustainable, bio-inspired additive that mimics extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) to enhance anaerobic digestion performance.

🔗 Check out our article, published fully open-access in Chemical Engineering Journal: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.170343 

Anaerobic digestion is a biochemical process in which microorganisms convert organic-rich waste into renewable biogas and biosolids for composting. However, the process is often slow and inefficient, limiting large-scale energy recovery.

🧪 Key Highlights:

✔️ +16 % higher biogas yield

✔️ 40 % faster digestion (35 → 20 days)

✔️ 20 % better digestate dewaterability

✔️ Improved microbial granulation & stability

Their β-sheet-rich nanofibrillar structure strengthens microbial communities, accelerates substrate conversion, and improves sludge separation, paving the way for faster, cleaner, and more efficient waste-to-energy processes.

🌱This work establishes PNFs as a new class of EPS-mimetic additives for next-generation, high-performance anaerobic digestion: improving yield, kinetics, and dewaterability simultaneously.

🔗 Check out our article, published fully open-access in Chemical Engineering Journal:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2025.170343