scholarly journals Anaerobic digestion fundamentals, challenges, and technological advances

2022 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Mosleh Uddin ◽  
Mark Mba Wright

Abstract Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a natural biochemical process that converts organic materials into combustible biogas. AD has been long practiced for agricultural and urban waste management; however, this process is getting more attention as an alternative energy source nowadays. Additionally, various biogas-derived value-added chemicals and transportation fuels are turning AD into a profitable biorefinery business model. Despite its numerous potentials, AD technologies still face challenges in conversion efficiency, process stability, product quality, and economic feasibility. Researchers have been devising various mechanisms to tackle these challenges. However, a widespread adoption of commercial-scale AD is yet to be visible. The development of AD technology requires a concerted effort of scientists from different backgrounds to ensure rapid expansion.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 2948
Author(s):  
Soufia Mohammadi ◽  
Pilar Monsalvete Álvarez de Uribarri ◽  
Ursula Eicker

Biogas technology is an important alternative energy source worldwide. Blackwater and kitchen refuse represent ideal waste streams for bioenergy recovery through anaerobic co-digestion. Modeling of the biokinetics of anaerobic digestion on several aspects, such as microbial activity, substrate degradation, and methane production, from co-digestion of black water (BW) and kitchen refuse (KR) was the objective of this research. A mathematical model was developed towards a simulation based on mass balances on biomass, the organic substrate, and biogas. The model was implemented in INSEL and experimental data from the literature were used for model validation. The study shows that the simulation results fit well with the experimental data. The energy consumption and generation potential of anaerobic co-digestion of BW and KR were calculated to investigate if the produced biogas could supply the digester’s energy demand. This study can be used to pre-design anaerobic digestion systems in eco-districts.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Azhar Najjar ◽  
Elhagag Ahmed Hassan ◽  
Nidal Zabermawi ◽  
Saber H. Saber ◽  
Leena H. Bajrai ◽  
...  

AbstractIn this study, two highly thermotolerant and methanol-tolerant lipase-producing bacteria were isolated from cooking oil and they exhibited a high number of catalytic lipase activities recording 18.65 ± 0.68 U/mL and 13.14 ± 0.03 U/mL, respectively. Bacterial isolates were identified according to phenotypic and genotypic 16S rRNA characterization as Kocuria flava ASU5 (MT919305) and Bacillus circulans ASU11 (MT919306). Lipases produced from Kocuria flava ASU5 showed the highest methanol tolerance, recording 98.4% relative activity as well as exhibited high thermostability and alkaline stability. Under the optimum conditions obtained from 3D plots of response surface methodology design, the Kocuria flava ASU5 biocatalyst exhibited an 83.08% yield of biodiesel at optimized reaction variables of, 60 ○C, pH value 8 and 1:2 oil/alcohol molar ratios in the reaction mixture. As well as, the obtained results showed the interactions of temperature/methanol were significant effects, whereas this was not noted in the case of temperature/pH and pH/methanol interactions. The obtained amount of biodiesel from cooking oil was 83.08%, which was analyzed by a GC/Ms profile. The produced biodiesel was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) approaches showing an absorption band at 1743 cm−1, which is recognized for its absorption in the carbonyl group (C=O) which is characteristic of ester absorption. The energy content generated from biodiesel synthesized was estimated as 12,628.5 kJ/mol. Consequently, Kocuria flava MT919305 may provide promising thermostable, methanol-tolerant lipases, which may improve the economic feasibility and biotechnology of enzyme biocatalysis in the synthesis of value-added green chemicals.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 4292
Author(s):  
Lidia Lombardi ◽  
Barbara Mendecka ◽  
Simone Fabrizi

Industrial anaerobic digestion requires low temperature thermal energy to heat the feedstock and maintain temperature conditions inside the reactor. In some cases, the thermal requirements are satisfied by burning part of the produced biogas in devoted boilers. However, part of the biogas can be saved by integrating thermal solar energy into the anaerobic digestion plant. We study the possibility of integrating solar thermal energy in biowaste mesophilic/thermophilic anaerobic digestion, with the aim of reducing the amount of biogas burnt for internal heating and increasing the amount of biogas, further upgraded to biomethane and injected into the natural gas grid. With respect to previously available studies that evaluated the possibility of integrating solar thermal energy in anaerobic digestion, we introduce the topic of economic sustainability by performing a preliminary and simplified economic analysis of the solar system, based only on the additional costs/revenues. The case of Italian economic incentives for biomethane injection into the natural gas grid—that are particularly favourable—is considered as reference case. The amount of saved biogas/biomethane, on an annual basis, is about 4–55% of the heat required by the gas boiler in the base case, without solar integration, depending on the different considered variables (mesophilic/thermophilic, solar field area, storage time, latitude, type of collector). Results of the economic analysis show that the economic sustainability can be reached only for some of the analysed conditions, using the less expensive collector, even if its efficiency allows lower biomethane savings. Future reduction of solar collector costs might improve the economic feasibility. However, when the payback time is calculated, excluding the Italian incentives and considering selling the biomethane at the natural gas price, its value is always higher than 10 years. Therefore, incentives mechanism is of great importance to support the economic sustainability of solar integration in biowaste anaerobic digestion producing biomethane.


Author(s):  
Yu. Selikhov ◽  
K. Gorbunov ◽  
V. Stasov

Solar energy is widely used in solar systems, where economy and ecology are combined. Namely, this represents an important moment in the era of depletion of energy resources. The use of solar energy is a promising economical item for all countries of the world, meeting their interests also in terms of energy independence, thanks to which it is confidently gaining a stable position in the global energy sector. The cost of heat obtained through the use of solar installations largely depends on the radiation and climatic conditions of the area where the solar installation is used. The climatic conditions of our country, especially the south, make it possible to use the energy of the Sun to cover a significant part of the need for heat. A decrease in the reserves of fossil fuel and its rise in price have led to the development of optimal technical solutions, efficiency and economic feasibility of using solar installations. And today this is no longer an idle curiosity, but a conscious desire of homeowners to save not only their financial budget, but also health, which is possible only with the use of alternative energy sources, such as: double-circuit solar installations, geothermal heat pumps (HP), wind power generators. The problem is especially acute in the heat supply of housing and communal services (HCS), where the cost of fuel for heat production is several times higher than the cost of electricity. The main disadvantages of centralized heat supply sources are low energy, economic and environmental efficiency. And high transport tariffs for the delivery of energy carriers and frequent accidents on heating mains exacerbate the negative factors inherent in traditional district heating. One of the most effective energy-saving methods that make it possible to save fossil fuel, reduce environmental pollution, and meet the needs of consumers in process heat is the use of heat pump technologies for heat production.


Catalysts ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattia Bartoli ◽  
Chengyong Zhu ◽  
Michael Chae ◽  
David Bressler

Although thermal hydrolysis of digested biosolids is an extremely promising strategy for wastewater management, the process economics are prohibitive. Here, a biosolids-based material generated through thermal hydrolysis was used as a catalyst for urea glycerolysis performed under several conditions. The catalytic system showed remarkable activity, reaching conversion values of up to 70.8 ± 0.9% after six hours, at 140 °C using a catalyst/glycerol weight ratio of 9% and an air stream to remove NH3 formed during the process. Temperature played the most substantial role among reaction parameters; increasing temperature from 100 °C to 140 °C improved conversion by 35% and glycidol selectivity by 22%. Furthermore, the catalyst retained good activity even after the fourth catalytic run (conversion rate of 56.4 ± 1.3%) with only a slight decrease in glycidol selectivity. Thus, the use of a biosolids-based catalyst may facilitate conversion of various glycerol sources (i.e., byproduct streams from biodiesel production) into value-added products such as glycidol, and may also improve the economic feasibility of using thermal hydrolysis for treatment of biosolids.


2019 ◽  
Vol 180 ◽  
pp. 938-948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zeng Huiru ◽  
Yan Yunjun ◽  
Federica Liberti ◽  
Bartocci Pietro ◽  
Francesco Fantozzi

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4936
Author(s):  
Ahmed Tawfik ◽  
Shou-Qing Ni ◽  
Hanem. M. Awad ◽  
Sherif Ismail ◽  
Vinay Kumar Tyagi ◽  
...  

Gelatin production is the most industry polluting process where huge amounts of raw organic materials and chemicals (HCl, NaOH, Ca2+) are utilized in the manufacturing accompanied by voluminous quantities of end-pipe effluent. The gelatinous wastewater (GWW) contains a large fraction of protein and lipids with biodegradability (BOD/COD ratio) exceeding 0.6. Thus, it represents a promising low-cost substrate for the generation of biofuels, i.e., H2 and CH4, by the anaerobic digestion process. This review comprehensively describes the anaerobic technologies employed for simultaneous treatment and energy recovery from GWW. The emphasis was afforded on factors affecting the biofuels productivity from anaerobic digestion of GWW, i.e., protein concentration, organic loading rate (OLR), hydraulic retention time (HRT), the substrate to inoculum (S0/X0) ratio, type of mixed culture anaerobes, carbohydrates concentration, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), ammonia and alkalinity/VFA ratio, and reactor configurations. Economic values and future perspectives that require more attention are also outlined to facilitate further advancement and achieve practicality in this domain.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rifki Wahyu Kurnianto ◽  
Wiratni Budhijanto ◽  
Rochim Bakti Cahyono

Anaerobic digestion has been an attractive field of research in the era of energy crisis. Biogas, which is the product of anaerobic digestion, provides alternative energy, while at the same time it also prevents pollution due to organic waste accumulation. Among various organic wastes, dairy fat waste is a potential substrate for anaerobic digestion. Fat waste has high theoretical biogas potential because of its high lipid content. However, anaerobic digestion of organic waste with high lipid content is quite challenging. The main obstacle in anaerobic digestion of fat waste is its tendency to form insoluble floating layer on top of the liquid phase. This phenomenon hinders the access of hydrolytic bacteria to the substrate. Saponification is one of the methods to increase the solubility of the floating layer and hence to improve the availability of substrate for the bacteria. Saponification changes the lipid content into soap which has both polar and non-polar functional groups and the polar side will increase the solubility of the substrate in water. This study evaluated the effect of different dosage of base added as the reactant during saponification pre-treatment on the productivity of anaerobic digestion of dairy fat waste. The kinetics of the anaerobic digestion process was analyzed by mean of mathematical model. The variations of the alkaline dosages studied for saponification pre-treatment were 0.04 mol base/g sCOD; 0.02 mol base/g sCOD; and no pre-treatment for control reactor. This study proved that saponification increased the solubility of dairy fat waste. This result was confirmed by the hydrolysis constant value (kH) of 0.00782/day for reactor with saponification, which was twenty times of magnitude higher than the kH value of 0.00032/day in the reactor without saponification. However, the exposure to high pH during the saponification pre-treatment might somewhat inhibit indigenous acidogenic bacteria in the waste which results in lower methane yield in the reactors with saponification to be compared to the control reactor. A B S T R A KPeruraian anaerobik merupakan salah satu bidang riset yang sangat menarik perhatian dalam era krisis energi. Biogas tidak hanya menyediakan energi alternatif, tetapi juga dapat mencegah pencemaran akibat limbah organik. Limbah lemak susu adalah substrat yang potensial untuk proses peruraian anaerobik karena memiliki potensi biogas teoritis yang tinggi akibat kandungan lemaknya yang tinggi. Namun, peruraian anaerobik dari limbah organik dengan kandungan lemak yang tinggi memiliki tantangan tersendiri. Hambatan utama dalam peruraian anaerobik dari limbah lemak susu adalah kecenderungan untuk membentuk lapisan padatan yang tidak larut dan mengapung di bagian atas fase cair. Fenomena ini menghambat akses bakteri hidrolisis terhadap substrat. Saponifikasi adalah salah satu cara untuk meningkatkan kelarutan lapisan padatan tersebut, sehingga meningkatkan ketersediaan substrat untuk bakteri. Saponifikasi akan mengubah kandungan lemak menjadi sabun yang memiliki gugus fungsi polar maupun non-polar. Gugus fungsi yang bersifat polar akan meningkatkan kelarutan substrat dalam air. Studi ini mengevaluasi pengaruh dari berbagai dosis larutan basa yang ditambahkan sebagai reaktan selama perlakuan awal saponifikasi terhadap peruraian anaerobik limbah lemak susu. Kinetika proses peruraian anaerobik dianalisis dengan menggunakan model matematika. Variasi dosis yang diamati pengaruhnya untuk perlakuan awal saponifikasi adalah 0,04 mol basa/g sCOD; 0,02 mol basa/g sCOD; dan nol (tanpa perlakuan awal saponifikasi). Dari penelitian ini, terbukti bahwa saponifikasi berhasil meningkatkan kelarutan limbah lemak susu dan juga ditunjukkan oleh nilai konstanta hidrolisis (kH) 0,00782/hari lebih tinggi dua puluh kali lipat dibandingkan dengan nilai kH 0,00032/hari pada reaktor tanpa saponifikasi. Akan tetapi, penelitian ini juga mengindikasikan bahwa bakteri asidogenik bawaan substrat terhambat kinerjanya oleh paparan pH yang tinggi selama perlakuan awal saponifikasi berlangsung sehingga hasil gas metan yang diperoleh lebih rendah daripada reaktor kontrol.


2019 ◽  
Vol 70 (7) ◽  
pp. 2524-2529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreea D. Dima ◽  
Carmen Mateescu ◽  
Oana C. Parvulescu ◽  
Eduard M. Lungulescu ◽  
Nicoleta O. Nicula

Anaerobic digestion of organic matter with high moisture content has proven to be a suitable method for disposal of wet organic residuals with several advantages compared to other treatment technologies. This paper aimed at evaluating the theoretical and experimental biomethane potential of food processing residuals that are responsible for negative environmental impact, with exemplification for the potato processing waste. The biomethane potential is a useful parameter to assess the economic efficiency of anaerobic digestion processes as it can considerably influence the efficiency and the economic feasibility of the energy recovery technologies. Both experimental and theoretical biomethane potentials of potato waste in mesophilic anaerobic digestion as well as biodegradability of the substrate were estimated. Moreover, effects of microalgal extract addition on the digestion of potato waste were examined in an attempt to stimulate the anaerobic digestion. Cone model and a modified Gompertz model were used to predict the dynamics of biomethane production.


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