Improving the Anaerobic Digestion of Swine Manure through an Optimized Ammonia Treatment: Process Performance, Digestate and Techno-Economic Aspects

Swine manure mono-digestion results in relatively low methane productivity due to the low degradation rate of its solid fraction (manure fibers), and due to the high ammonia and water content. The aqueous ammonia soaking (AAS) pretreatment of manure fibers has been proposed for overcoming these limitations. In this study, continuous anaerobic digestion (AD) of manure mixed with optimally AAS-treated manure fibers was compared to the AD of manure mixed with untreated manure fibers. Due to lab-scale pumping restrictions, the ratio of AAS-optimally treated manure fibers to manure was only 1/3 on a total solids (TS) basis. However, the biogas productivity and methane yield were improved by 17% and 38%, respectively, also confirming the predictions from a simplified 1st order hydrolysis model based on batch experiments. Furthermore, an improved reduction efficiency of major organic components was observed for the digester processing AAS-treated manure fibers compared to the non-treated one (e.g., 42% increased reduction for cellulose fraction). A preliminary techno-economic analysis of the proposed process showed that mixing raw manure with AAS manure fibers in large-scale digesters could result in a 72% increase of revenue compared to the AD of manure mixed with untreated fibers and 135% increase compared to that of solely manure.

On the Effect of Aqueous Ammonia Soaking Pre-Treatment on Continuous Anaerobic Digestion of Digested Swine Manure Fibers

(1) Background: The continuously increasing demand for renewable energy sources renders anaerobic digestion as one of the most promising technologies for renewable energy production. Due to the animal production intensification, manure is being used as the primary feedstock for most biogas plants. Their economical profitable operation, however, relies on increasing the methane yield from the solid fraction of manure, which is not so easily degradable. The solid fraction after anaerobic digestion, the so-called digested fibers, consists mainly of hardly biodegradable material and comes at a lower mass per unit volume of manure compared to the solid fraction before anaerobic digestion. Therefore, investigation on how to increase the biodegradability of digested fibers is very relevant. So far, Aqueous Ammonia Soaking (AAS), has been successfully applied on digested fibers separated from the effluent of a manure-fed, full-scale anaerobic digester to enhance their methane productivity in batch experiments. (2) Methods: In the present study, continuous experiments at a mesophilic (38 °C) CSTR-type anaerobic digester fed with swine manure first and a mixture of manure with AAS-treated digested fibers in the sequel, were performed. Anaerobic Digestion Model 1 (ADM1) previously fitted on manure fed digester was used in order to assess the effect of the addition of AAS-pre-treated digested manure fibers on the kinetics of anaerobic digestion process. (3) Results and Conclusions: The methane yield of AAS-treated digested fibers under continuous operation was 49–68% higher than that calculated in batch experiments in the past. It was found that AAS treatment had a profound effect mainly on the disintegration/hydrolysis rate of particulate carbohydrates. Comparison of the data obtained in the present study with the data obtained with AAS-pre-treated raw manure fibers in the past revealed that hydrolysis kinetics after AAS pre-treatment were similar for both types of biomasses.

Improving the efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis of Eucalyptus residues with a modified aqueous ammonia soaking method

Eucalyptus residues from pulp mill were pretreated with aqueous ammonia soaking (AAS) method to improve the efficiency of enzymatic hydrolysis. The optimized condition of AAS was obtained by response surface methodology. Meanwhile, hydrogen peroxide was introduced into the AAS system to modify the AAS pretreatment (AASP). The results showed that a fermentable sugar yield of 64.96 % was obtained when the eucalypt fibers were pretreated at the optimal conditions, with 80 % of ammonia (w/w) for 11 h and keeping the temperature at 90 °C. In further research it was found that the addition of H2O2 to the AAS could improve the pretreatment efficiency. The delignification rate and enzymatic digestibility were increased to 64.49 % and 73.85 %, respectively, with 5 % of hydrogen peroxide being used. FTIR analysis indicated that most syringyl and guaiacyl lignin and a trace amount of xylan were degraded and dissolved during the AAS and AASP pretreatments. The CrI of the raw material was increased after AAS and AASP pretreatments, which was attributed to the removal of amorphous portion. SEM images showed that microfibers were separated and explored from the initial fiber structure after AAS pretreatment, and the AASP method could improve the destructiveness of the fiber surface.

Selection of the StrainLactobacillus acidophilusATCC 43121 and Its Application to Brewers’ Spent Grain Conversion into Lactic Acid

SixLactobacillusstrains were analyzed to select a bacterium for conversion of brewers’ spent grain (BSG) into lactic acid. Among the investigated strains,L. acidophilusATCC 43121 showed the highest yield of lactic acid production (16.1 g/L after 48 hours) when grown in a synthetic medium. It was then analyzed for its ability to grow on the hydrolysates obtained from BSG after acid-alkaline (AAT) or aqueous ammonia soaking (AAS) pretreatment. The lactic acid production byL. acidophilusATCC 43121 through fermentation of the hydrolysate from AAS treated BSG was 96% higher than that from the AAT treated one, although similar yields of lactic acid per consumed glucose were achieved due to a higher (46%) glucose consumption byL. acidophilusATCC 43121 in the AAS BSG hydrolysate. It is worth noting that adding yeast extract to the BSG hydrolysates increased both the yield of lactic acid per substrate consumed and the volumetric productivity. The best results were obtained by fermentation of AAS BSG hydrolysate supplemented by yeast extract, in which the strain produced 22.16 g/L of lactic acid (yield of 0.61 g/g), 27% higher than the value (17.49 g/L) obtained in the absence of a nitrogen source.