Cultivation of green algae Chlorella sp. in different wastewaters from municipal wastewater treatment plant

The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth of green algae Chlorella sp. on wastewaters sampled from four different points of the treatment process flow of a local municipal wastewater treatment plant (MWTP) and how well the algal growth removed nitrogen, phosphorus, chemical oxygen demand (COD), and metal ions from the wastewaters. The four wastewaters were wastewater before primary settling (#1 wastewater), wastewater after primary settling (#2 wastewater), wastewater after activated sludge tank (#3 wastewater), and centrate (#4 wastewater), which is the wastewater generated in sludge centrifuge. The average specific growth rates in the exponential period were 0.412, 0.429, 0.343, and 0.948 day(-1) for wastewaters #1, #2, #3, and #4, respectively. The removal rates of NH4-N were 82.4%, 74.7%, and 78.3% for wastewaters #1, #2, and #4, respectively. For #3 wastewater, 62.5% of NO3-N, the major inorganic nitrogen form, was removed with 6.3-fold of NO2-N generated. From wastewaters #1, #2, and #4, 83.2%, 90.6%, and 85.6% phosphorus and 50.9%, 56.5%, and 83.0% COD were removed, respectively. Only 4.7% was removed in #3 wastewater and the COD in #3 wastewater increased slightly after algal growth, probably due to the excretion of small photosynthetic organic molecules by algae. Metal ions, especially Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, and Mn in centrate, were found to be removed very efficiently. The results of this study suggest that growing algae in nutrient-rich centrate offers a new option of applying algal process in MWTP to manage the nutrient load for the aeration tank to which the centrate is returned, serving the dual roles of nutrient reduction and valuable biofuel feedstock production.

Swine manure fermentation for hydrogen production

Biohydrogen fermentation using liquid swine manure as substrate supplemented with glucose was investigated in this project. Experiments were conducted using a semi-continuously-fed fermenter (8L in total volume and 4 L in working volume) with varying pHs from 4.7 through 5.9 under controlled temperature (35+/-1 degrees C). The hydraulic retention time (HRT) tested include 16, 20, and 24h; however, in two pH conditions (5.0 and 5.3), an additional HRT of 12h was also tried. The experimental design combining HRT and pH provided insight on the fermenter performance in terms of hydrogen generation. The results indicated that both HRT and pH had profound influences on fermentative hydrogen productivity. A rising HRT would lead to greater variation in hydrogen concentration in the offgas and the best HRT was found to be 16 h for the fermenter in this study. The best pH value in correspondence to the highest hydrogen generation was revealed to be 5.0 among all the pHs studied. There was no obvious inhibition on hydrogen production by methanogenesis when methane content in the offgas was lower than 2%. Otherwise, an inverse linear relationship between hydrogen and methane content was observed with a correlation coefficient of 0.9699. Therefore, to increase hydrogen content in the offgas, methane production has to be limited to below 2%.

Culture of microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in wastewater for biomass feedstock production

The objective of this research was to develop large-scale technologies to produce oil-rich algal biomass from wastewater. The experiments were conducted using Erlenmeyer flasks and biocoil photobioreactor. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was grown in artificial media and wastewaters taken from three different stages of the treatment process, namely, influent, effluent, and centrate. Each of wastewaters contained different levels of nutrients. The specific growth rate of C. reinhardtii in different cultures was monitored over a period of 10 days. The biomass yield of microalgae and associated nitrogen and phosphorous removal were evaluated. Effects of CO(2) and pH on the growth were also studied. The level of nutrients greatly influenced algae growth. High levels of nutrients seem to inhibit algae growth in the beginning, but provided sustained growth to a high degree. The studies have shown that the optimal pH for C. reinhardtii is in the range of 7.5. An injection of air and a moderate amount of CO(2) promoted algae growth. However, too much CO(2) inhibited algae growth due to a significant decrease in pH. The experimental results showed that algal dry biomass yield reached a maximum of 2.0 g L(-1) day(-1) in the biocoil. The oil content of microalgae of C. reinhardtii was 25.25% (w/w) in dry biomass weight. In the biocoil, 55.8 mg nitrogen and 17.4 mg phosphorus per liter per day were effectively removed from the centrate wastewater. Ferric chloride was found to be an effective flocculent that helps the algae settle for easy harvest and separation from the culture media.

Biohydrogen production through fermentation using liquid swine manure as substrate

In this paper, continuous production of hydrogen through fermentation with liquid swine manure as substrate was researched using a semi-continuously fed fermenter (8 L in total volume and 4 L in working volume). The pH and temperature for the fermenter were controlled at 5.3 +/- 0.1 and 35 +/- 1 degrees C, respectively, throughout the experiment. Three hydraulic retention times (16, 20, and 24 h) were investigated for their impact on the efficiency and performance of the fermenter in terms of hydrogen yields. The results indicate that hydraulic retention time (HRT) has a strong influence on the fermenter performance. An increasing HRT would increase the variation in hydrogen concentration in the offgas. To produce hydrogen with a fairly consistent concentration, the HRT of the fermenter should not exceed 16 h, which, however, did not appear to be short enough to control methanogenesis because the offgas still contained about 5% methane. When methane content in the offgas exceeded 2%, an inverse linear relationship between hydrogen and methane was observed with a correlation coefficient of 0.9699. To increase hydrogen content in the offgas, methane production has to be limited to below 2%. Also, keeping oxygen content in the fermenter below 1.5% would increase the hydrogen concentration to over 15%. The product to substrate ratio was found to be around 50% for the fermenter system studied, evidenced by the observation that for every 6 liters of manure fermented, 3 liters of pure hydrogen were produced, which was significant and encouraging.

Reaction Kinetics of Stover Liquefaction in Recycled Stover Polyol

The purpose of this research was to study the kinetics of liquefaction of crop residues. The liquefaction of corn stover in the presence of ethylene glycol and ethylene carbonate using sulfuric acid as a catalyst was studied. It was found that the liquefaction yield was a function of ratio of solvent to corn stover, temperature, residence time, and amount of catalyst. Liquefaction of corn stover was conducted over a range of conditions encompassing residence times of 0-2.5 h, temperatures of 150-170 degrees C, sulfuric acid concentrations of 2-4% (w/w), and liquefaction reagent/corn stover ratio of 1-3. The liquefaction rate constants for individual sets of conditions were examined using a first-order reaction model. Rate constant increased with the increasing of liquefaction temperature, catalyst content, and liquefaction reagent/corn stover ratio. Reuse of liquefied biomass as liquefying agent was also evaluated. When using recycled liquefied biomass instead of fresh liquefaction reagent, the conversion is reduced. It appeared that 82% of liquefaction yield was achieved after two times of reuse.

Liquefaction of Corn Stover and Preparation of Polyester From the Liquefied Polyol

This research investigated a novel process to prepare polyester from corn stover through liquefaction and crosslinking processes. First, corn stover was liquefied in organic solvents (90 wt% ethylene glycol and 10 wt% ethylene carbonate) with catalysts at moderate temperature under atmospheric pressure. The effect of liquefaction temperature, biomass content, and type of catalyst, such as H2SO4, HCl, H3PO4, and ZnCl2, was evaluated. Higher liquefaction yield was achieved in 2 wt% sulfuric acid, 1/4 (w/w) stover to liquefying reagent ratio; 160 degrees C temperature, in 2 h. The liquefied corn stover was rich in polyols, which can be directly used as feedstock for making polymers without further separation or purification. Second, polyester was made from the liquefied corn stover by crosslinking with multifunctional carboxylic acids and/or cyclic acid anhydrides. The tensile strength of polyester is about 5 MPa and the elongation is around 35%. The polyester is stable in cold water and organic solvents and readily biodegradable as indicated by 82% weight loss when buried in damp soil for 10 mo. The results indicate that this novel polyester could be used for the biodegradable garden mulch film production.