A large number of Chinese herbs residues were produced during the production of honeysuckle and midday tea. Usually, the content of organic components in the residues was at a high level. These residues would pose a great threat to the local water environment, if they were not treated and disposed properly. In this paper, a self-prepared anaerobic reactor was utilized to treat the residues of honeysuckle and midday tea in semi-solid phase media. The anaerobic sludge was inoculated into the residues for anaerobic digestion at the temperature of 37±1°C, and ISRs (ISRs is the total solid mass ratio between inoculum and substrate) were 1:2, 1:1, 2:1 respectively. The result showed that the ultimate maximum yield of methane was the under ISRs of 1:1, the cumulative methane production volume of honeysuckle and midday tea dregs were 5832mL/100g and 5591mL/100g, respectively, after 192h digestion. Under the best inoculation ratio of 1:1, another mesophilic anaerobic experiment was carried out by mixing the residues of honeysuckle and midday tea as substrate at different ratios of 0:3, 1:2, 1:1, 2:1 and 3:0, respectively, which were to compare the methane production at 37±1°C. The result indicated that the ultimate maximum yield of methane was under mixed ratio of 1:2, the cumulative methane production volume of the mixed Chinese herbs residues was 9110 mL/100g after 192h digestion. Furthermore, the zero-order kinetic model was found to be suitable to characterize the removal ratio of substrate during 0~108h digestion while the biogas was generated fast, and the kinetic constant k was 50.49mL/h. To obtain the ultimate maximum rate of methane production, the anaerobic reaction should be controlled under the stage of zero-order reaction. Thus, the experimental results could provide scientific proof for anaerobic treatment and methane recycling in organic waste of Chinese herbs enterprises.
Kinetic analysis and simulation of UASB anaerobic treatment of a synthetic fruit wastewater
