The traditional pig manure wastewater treatment in Taiwan has been low in methane production efficiency due to unstable influent concentration, wastewater volume, and quality. Two-stage anaerobic systems, in contrast, have the advantage of buffering the organic loading rate in the first stage (hydrolysis-acidogenesis phase), allowing a more constant feeding rate to the second stage (methanogenesis phase). Response surface methodology was applied to optimize the operational period (0.5–2.0 d) and initial operational pH (4–10) for hydrolysis and acidogenesis of the swine manure (total solid 5.3%) at 35 °C in batch operation mode. A methanogenesis verification experiment with the optimal condition of operational period 1.5 d and pH 6.5 using batch operation resulted in peak volatile acid production 7 g COD/L, methane production rate (MPR) 0.3 L-CH₄/L-d, and methane yield (MY) 92 mL-CH₄/g-CODre (chemical oxygen demand removed). Moreover, a two-stage system including a hydrolysis-acidogenesis reactor with the optimal operating condition and a methanogenesis reactor provided an average MPR 163 mL/L-d and MY 38 mL/g volatile solids, which values are 60% higher than those of a single-stage system; both systems have similar dominant methane-producing species of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes with each having around 30%–40%. The advantages of a two-stage anaerobic fermentation system in treating swine manure for biogas production are obvious.

Batch experiments were conducted to convert molasses wastewater (10-160 g COD/L) into hydrogen at 35°C at various pH (4-8). The maximum hydrogen productivity (HP) and hydrogen production rate (HPR) reached 47.1 mmol-H2/g COD_re and 97.5 mmol-H2/L-day, respectively, at a substrate concentration of 40 g COD/L and pH 6.0. The methane-free biogas contained up to 50% (v/v) of hydrogen. Fermentation at wastewater concentrations higher than 60 g COD/L required a long acclimation period (more than 20 h). Though the fractions were substrate concentration and pH-dependent, acetate and butyrate were the two main liquid fermentation products. A comparison of the HP and HPR data indicates that defining a hydrogen yield indicator to evaluate hydrogen generation efficiency should be taken into consideration in practical fermentation operations.