scholarly journals Anaerobic treatment of glycerol for methane and hydrogen production

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-156 ◽  

This work focused on glycerol exploitation for biogas and hydrogen production. Anaerobic digestion of pure glycerol was studied in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR), operated under mesophilic conditions (35oC) at various organic loading rates. The overall operation of the reactor showed that it could not withstand organic loading rates above 0.25 g COD L-1 d-1, where the maximum biogas (0.42 ± 0.05 L (g COD)-1) and methane (0.30 ± 0.04 L (g COD)-1) production were achieved. Fermentative hydrogen production was carried out in batch reactors under mesophilic conditions (35oC), using heat-pretreated anaerobic microbial culture as inoculum. The effects of initial concentration of glycerol and initial pH value on hydrogen production were studied. The highest yield obtained was 22.14 ± 0.46 mL H2 (g COD added)-1 for an initial pH of 6.5 and an initial glycerol concentration of 8.3 g COD L-1. The main metabolic product was 1.3 propanediol (PDO), while butyric and acetic acids as well as ethanol, at lower concentrations, were also determined.

2010 ◽  
Vol 152-153 ◽  
pp. 702-707
Author(s):  
An Ying Jiao ◽  
Yong Feng Li ◽  
Bing Liu ◽  
Kun Liu ◽  
Jing Li Xu

Ethanoligenens sp. R3 isolated from anaerobic sludge in a continuous stirred tank reactor was investigated for its characteristics of fermentative hydrogen production in this study. Effects of initial pH value, fermentation temperature and proportion of carbon/nitrogen source on hydrogen production were investigated in batch experiments. The typical substrate for hydrogen production of glucose and peptone were used as the carbon source and nitrogen source, respectively. The results show that the maximum hydrogen production yield of 834 mlH2/L culture was obtained with initial pH value of 5.5 and fermentation temperature at 35°C. In addition, the maximum average hydrogen production rate of 10.87mmolH2/g cell dry weighth was achieved at the carbon/nitrogen source ratio of 3.3. The degradation efficiency of the glucose used as the carbon source ranged from 91.5% to 95.43% during the conversion of glucose to hydrogen by bacteria Ethanoligenens sp. R3.


1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 255-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Germán Cuevas-Rodríguez ◽  
Óscar González-Barceló ◽  
Simón González-Martínez

This research project was conducted to analyze the performance of a SBR reactor when being fed with anaerobically fermented wastewater. Important was to determine the capacity of the system to remove nitrogen and phosphorus. Two SBR reactors, each one with a volume of 980 liters, were used: one used as fermenter and the other as activated sludge SBR. Using 8-hour cycles, the reactors were operated and studied during 269 days. The fermenter produced an effluent with an average value of 223±24 mg/l of volatile fatty acids. The activated sludge SBR was tested under 3 organic loading rates of 0.13, 0.25, and 0.35 kgCODtotal/kgTSS·d. For the three tested organic loading rates, PO4-P concentrations under 1.1 mg/l and COD between 37 and 38 mg/l were consistently achieved. Exceptionally high NH4-N influent values were measured during the time of the experimentation with the organic load of 0.25 kgCODtotal/kgTSS·d, not reaching in this case full nitrification. Denitrification was observed during the fill phase in every cycle. SVI values between 40 and 70 were determined during the experimental runs.


2001 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 189-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. van Lier ◽  
P. N.L. Lens ◽  
L. W. Hulshoff Pol

Stringent environmental laws in Europe and Northern America lead to the development towards closure of the process water streams in pulp and paper mills. Application of a "zero-discharge" process is already a feasible option for the board and packaging paper industry, provided in-line treatment is applied. Concomitant energy conservation inside the mill results in process water temperatures of 50-60°C. Thermophilic anaerobic treatment complemented with appropriate post-treatment is considered as the most cost-effective solution to meet re-use criteria of the process water and to keep its temperature. In the proposed closed-cycle, the anaerobic treatment step removes the largest fraction of the biodegradable COD and eliminates “S” as H2S from the process stream, without the use of additional chemicals. The anaerobic step is regarded as the only possible location to bleed "S" from the process water cycle. In laboratory experiments, the effect of upward liquid velocity (Vupw) and the specific gas loading rate (Vgas) on the S removal capacity of thermophilic anaerobic bio-reactors was investigated. Acidifying, sulphate reducing sludge bed reactors were fed with partly acidified synthetic paper mill wastewater and were operated at 55°C and pH 6. The reactors were operated at organic loading rates up to 50 g COD.l−1.day−1 at COD/SO42- ratios of 10. The effect of Vupw was researched by comparing the performance of a UASB reactor operated at 1.0 m.h−1 and an EGSB reactor, operated at 6.8 m.h−1. The Vupw had a strong effect on the fermentation patterns. In the UASB reactor, acidification yielded H2, acetate and propionate, leading to an accumulation of reducing equivalents. These were partly disposed of by the production of n-butyrate and n-valerate from propionate. In the EGSB reactor net acetate consumption was observed as well as high volumetric gas (CO2 and CH4) production rates. The higher gas production rates in the EGSB reactor resulted in higher S-stripping efficiencies. The effect of Vgas was further researched by comparing 2 UASB reactors which were sparged with N2 gas at a specific gas loading rate of 30 m3.m−2.day−1. In contrast to the regular UASB reactors, the gas-supplied UASB showed a more stable performance when the organic loading rates were increased. Also, the H2S stripping efficiency was 3-4 times higher in the gas-supplied UASB, reaching values of 67%. Higher values were not obtained owing to the relatively poor sulphate reduction efficiencies.


Author(s):  
Fei Wang ◽  
Mengfu Pei ◽  
Ling Qiu ◽  
Yiqing Yao ◽  
Congguang Zhang ◽  
...  

Poultry manure is the main source of agricultural and rural non-point source pollution, and its effective disposal through anaerobic digestion (AD) is of great significance; meanwhile, the high nitrogen content of chicken manure makes it a typical feedstock for anaerobic digestion. The performance of chicken-manure-based AD at gradient organic loading rates (OLRs) in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) was investigated herein. The whole AD process was divided into five stages according to different OLRs, and it lasted for 150 days. The results showed that the biogas yield increased with increasing OLR, which was based on the volatile solids (VS), before reaching up to 11.5 g VS/(L·d), while the methane content was kept relatively stable and maintained at approximately 60%. However, when the VS was further increased to 11.5 g VS/(L·d), the total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), pH, and alkalinity (CaCO3) rose to 2560 mg·L−1, 8.2, and 15,000 mg·L−1, respectively, while the volumetric biogas production rate (VBPR), methane content, and VS removal efficiency decreased to 0.30 L·(L·d)−1, 45%, and 40%, respectively. Therefore, the AD performance immediately deteriorated and ammonia inhibition occurred. Further analysis demonstrated that the microbial biomass yield and concentrations dropped dramatically in this period. These results indicated that the AD stayed steady when the OLR was lower than 11.5 g VS/(L·d); this also provides valuable information for improving the efficiency and stability of AD of a nitrogen-rich substrate.


2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (10-11) ◽  
pp. 31-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Zuo ◽  
Y. Zuo ◽  
W. Zhang ◽  
J. Chen

Anaerobic bio-hydrogen production is the focus in the field of bio-energy resources. In this paper, a series of batch experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of several factors on anaerobic bio-hydrogen producing process carried out by pre-heated river sediments. The results showed that several factors such as substrate and its concentration, temperature and the initial pH value could affect the anaerobic bio-hydrogen production in different levels. At 35°C and the initial pH of 6.5, using glucose of 20,000mg COD/L as substrate, the highest hydrogen production of 323.8ml-H2/g TVS in a 100ml batch reactor was reached, the specific hydrogen production rate was 37.7ml-H2/g TVSh, and the hydrogen content was 51.2%. Thereafter using the same pre-heated river sediments as seed sludge, continuous anaerobic bio-hydrogen production was achieved successfully in a lab-scale CSTR with gas-separator. At the organic loading rate of 36kg COD/m3d, the highest hydrogen production was 6.3–6.7l-H2/l-reactord, the specific hydrogen production was 1.3–1.4mol-H2/mol-glucose, and the hydrogen content in the gas was 52.3%. The effluent of the bio-reactor contained some small molecular organics, mainly including ethanol, acetate, butyrate and their molar proportion is 1 : 1 : 0.6.


2010 ◽  
Vol 113-116 ◽  
pp. 1132-1137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Feng Li ◽  
Yong Ming Hui ◽  
Xin Yao ◽  
Lu Wang ◽  
Qian Wen Song ◽  
...  

In this experiment, brown sugar was chosen as the substrate of continuous operation. A lab-scale expanded granular sludge blanket (EGSB) reactor was employed. Stable ethanol-type fermentation was formed by controlling the organic loading rate (OLR). The results showed a maximum hydrogen production rate of 5.73L / L reactor•d was achieved, under the condition that the hydraulic retention time (HRT) = 2h, OLR = 97.2kg COD/m3 reactor•d. The average hydrogen content in the biogas during the 73-day operation was 41.27%.


2011 ◽  
Vol 71-78 ◽  
pp. 2103-2106
Author(s):  
Ming Yue Zheng ◽  
Ming Xia Zheng ◽  
Kai Jun Wang ◽  
Hai Yan

The performance of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) fed with three metabolic intermediate (acetate, ethanol, and propionate) respectively was studied. The degradation of metabolic intermediate were investigated to discuss the reason for propionate inhibition problem in anaerobic treatment. The hydraulic retention time (HRT) in the reactors started with 8.0h.The yield rate of biogas were 237ml/gCOD, 242ml/gCOD, 218ml/gCOD for acetate, ethanol and propionate, respectively when finishing start-up under OLR of 5.0 kgCOD/(m3·d) (HRT=9.6h).The HRT remained constant 9.6h,and the substrate concentration was gradually increased from 1,000 to 16,000mg/L as COD,and the organic loading rates(OLR) was from 3.0 to 40.0 kgCOD/(m3·d).The maximum propionate concentration was 41.6 gHPr-COD/L at the organic loading rate of 43.9 kgCOD/(m3·d) (HRT, 9.6h) as well as acetate and ethanol.


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