scholarly journals Experiments and Modeling for Flexible Biogas Production by Co-Digestion of Food Waste and Sewage Sludge

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 818 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiyun Liu ◽  
Tao Huang ◽  
Xiaofeng Li ◽  
Jingjing Huang ◽  
Daoping Peng ◽  
...  

This paper explores the feasibility of flexible biogas production by co-digestion of food waste and sewage sludge based on experiments and mathematical modeling. First, laboratory-scale experiments were carried out in variable operating conditions in terms of organic loading rate and feeding frequency to the digester. It is demonstrated that biogas production can achieve rapid responses to arbitrary feedings through co-digestion, and the stability of the anaerobic digestion process is not affected by the overloading of substrates. Compared with the conventional continuous mode, the required biogas storage capacity in flexible feeding mode can be significantly reduced. The optimum employed feeding organic loading rate (OLR) is identified, and how to adjust the feeding scheme for flexible biogas production is also discussed. Finally, a simplified prediction model for flexible biogas production is proposed and verified by experimental data, which could be conveniently used for demand-oriented control. It is expected that this research could give some theoretical basis for the enhancement of biogas utilization efficiency, thus expanding the applications of bio-energy.

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1487
Author(s):  
Vicky De Groof ◽  
Marta Coma ◽  
Tom C. Arnot ◽  
David J. Leak ◽  
Ana B. Lanham

Production of medium chain carboxylic acids (MCCA) as renewable feedstock bio-chemicals, from food waste (FW), requires complicated reactor configurations and supplementation of chemicals to achieve product selectivity. This study evaluated the manipulation of organic loading rate in an un-supplemented, single stage stirred tank reactor to steer an anaerobic digestion (AD) microbiome towards acidogenic fermentation (AF), and thence to chain elongation. Increasing substrate availability by switching to a FW feedstock with a higher COD stimulated chain elongation. The MCCA species n-caproic (10.1 ± 1.7 g L−1) and n-caprylic (2.9 ± 0.8 g L−1) acid were produced at concentrations comparable to more complex reactor set-ups. As a result, of the adjusted operating strategy, a more specialised microbiome developed containing several MCCA-producing bacteria, lactic acid-producing Olsenella spp. and hydrogenotrophic methanogens. By contrast, in an AD reactor that was operated in parallel to produce biogas, the retention times had to be doubled when fed with the high-COD FW to maintain biogas production. The AD microbiome comprised a diverse mixture of hydrolytic and acidogenic bacteria, and acetoclastic methanogens. The results suggest that manipulation of organic loading rate and food-to-microorganism ratio may be used as an operating strategy to direct an AD microbiome towards AF, and to stimulate chain elongation in FW fermentation, using a simple, un-supplemented stirred tank set-up. This outcome provides the opportunity to repurpose existing AD assets operating on food waste for biogas production, to produce potentially higher value MCCA products, via simple manipulation of the feeding strategy.


Author(s):  
Javkhlan Ariunbaatar ◽  
Robert Bair ◽  
Onur Ozcan ◽  
Harish Ravishankar ◽  
Giovanni Esposito ◽  
...  

Anaerobic digestion of food waste (FW) is typically limited to large reactors due to high hydraulic retention times (HRTs). Technologies such as anaerobic membrane reactors (AnMBRs) can perform anaerobic digestion at lower HRTs while maintaining high chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies. This study evaluated the effect of HRT and organic loading rate (OLR) on the stability and performance of a side-stream AnMBR in treating diluted fresh food waste (FW). The reactor was fed with synthetic FW at an influent concentration of 8.24 (± 0.12) g COD/L. The OLR was increased by reducing the HRT from 20 to 1 d. The AnMBR obtained an overall removal efficiency of >97 and >98% of the influent COD and total suspended solids (TSS), respectively, throughout the course of operation. The biological process was able to convert 76% of the influent COD into biogas with 70% methane content, while the cake layer formed on the membrane gave an additional COD removal of 7%. Total ammoniacal nitrogen (TAN) and total nitrogen (TN) concentrations were found to be higher in the bioreactor than in the influent, and average overall removal efficiencies of 17.3 (± 5) and 61.5 (± 3)% of TAN and TN, respectively, were observed with respect to the bioreactor concentrations after 2 weeks. Total phosphorus (TP) had an average removal efficiency of 40.39 (± 5)% with respect to the influent. Membrane fouling was observed when the HRT was decreased from 7 to 5 d and was alleviated through backwashing. This study suggests that the side-stream AnMBR can be used to successfully reduce the typical HRT of wet anaerobic food waste (solids content 7%) digesters from 20 days to 1 day, while maintaining a high COD removal efficiency and biogas production.


2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2A) ◽  
pp. 37-42
Author(s):  
Dinh Thi Nga

This research was carried out to evaluate the effect of organic loading rate to the performance of anaerobic co-digestion digester treating organic fraction of food waste (FW) and sludge waste (SW) from wastewater treatment plant. The experiment was conducted in two runs: Run S50, substrate contained 50 % of FW and 50 % of SW in term of volatile solid (VS) concentration; Run S100 (control run) contained 100 % SW in the influent substrate. The experiment was performed in a 3L working volume reactor at ambient temperature with three levels of organic loading rate (OLR) as 2; 4; 6 kgVS/m3/day, the duration of experiment was 18 days for each level of OLR. As results, the average of biogas production rate (BPR) at OLR 2;4;6 kgVS/m3/day,in Run S50 and Run S100 was 390 – 520;  860 – 1220; 1140 - 2440 ml/day and 160 – 300; 560 – 640; 700 - 1400 ml/day, respectively. The maximum methane yield (mlCH4/gVSadded/day) of organic loading rate 2; 4; 6 kgVS/m3/day was 118.96; 326.49; 628.20 for Run S50 and; 58.28; 160.27; 255.54 for Run S100, respectively. In conclusion, Run S50 always produced higher biogas production rate and higher methane yield at all 3 OLR levels. The higer OLR could enhance BPR and methane yield but at OLR 6 kgVS/m3/day made unstable performance and high concentration of COD in the effluent. Therefore, in this experimental conditions it has better operation at OLR under 6 kgVS/m3/day for the stable performance of reactors.


2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 320-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Gustavsson ◽  
B. H. Svensson ◽  
A. Karlsson

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of trace element supplementation on operation of wheat stillage-fed biogas tank reactors. The stillage used was a residue from bio-ethanol production, containing high levels of sulfate. In biogas production, high sulfate content has been associated with poor process stability in terms of low methane production and accumulation of process intermediates. However, the results of the present study show that this problem can be overcome by trace element supplementations. Four lab-scale wheat stillage-fed biogas tank reactors were operated for 345 days at a hydraulic retention time of 20 days (37 °C). It was concluded that daily supplementation with Co (0.5 mg L−1), Ni (0.2 mg L−1) and Fe (0.5 g L−1) were required for maintaining process stability at the organic loading rate of 4.0 g volatile solids L−1 day−1.


2018 ◽  
Vol 267 ◽  
pp. 133-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinxue Wen ◽  
Ye Ji ◽  
Yaru Hao ◽  
Long Huang ◽  
Zhiqiang Chen ◽  
...  

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