RESUMO
Cassava wastewater (cww) contains high concentrations of easily acidifying compounds, requiring a buffered system to allow a stable operation during anaerobic digestion (AD). The possibility to include a preliminary one-step fungi treatment aimed at raising the pH and buffering the cww prior to AD was studied. Preliminary tests were performed with a naturally grown fungal mixed culture, under aerated (AE), non-aerated (NAE) and initially oxygen-deprived (IOD) conditions. The cww was pre-treated by the NAE condition, until reaching a soluble chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 10 g L(-1) and pH 6.4 (batch A) and pH 5.7 (batch B). The fungal mixed culture showed ability to biodegrade the cww with initial pH of 4.4 and 14,500 mg COD L(-1), raising the pH over 8.5, with only 13 % of COD remaining within 27 days for both AE and NAE condition. The fungal pre-treated-cww (FPTcww) was subjected to anaerobic digestion under different buffered (CaCO3 and NaHCO3) and non-buffered conditions. The FPTcww with initial pH at 6.4 provided stability during the anaerobic biodegradability tests, showing the possibility of system operation without buffer addition, with final pH around 7. The application of a fungal pre-treatment can be a promising strategy to permit the anaerobic digestion of carbohydrate-rich wastewaters.