The effects of mixing and volatile fatty acid concentrations on anaerobic digester performance

Degradation of biodegradable plastics by anaerobic digestion: Morphological, micro-structural changes and microbial community dynamics

The serious environmental problem caused by traditional plastics has stimulated the popularization of biodegradable plastics (BPs). However, the rigorous prerequisite for the efficient degradation of BPs has not eliminated its potential hazard to nature. In most biosystems exists the anaerobic environment, but it is still controversial whether BPs can be degraded under such condition. Therefore, this study systematically assessed the anaerobic degradation performance of ten common BPs under mesophilic and thermophilic conditions. Results showed that four BPs were degraded evidently under mesophilic condition with the biodegradability of 57.9%-84.6%, while during thermophilic condition, five BPs showed remarkable degradation performance with the biodegradability of 53.0% to 95.7%. According to morphological and micro-structural analysis, the biodegradation of the BPs probably proceeded via bulk and/or surface erosion. Under mesophilic condition, Anaerolineales, Bacteroidales, Clostridiales, SBR1031, and Synergistales appeared to play an important role. During thermophilic condition, the hydrolysis, acidogenesis, and methanogenesis of most BPs were mainly conducted by Coprothermobacter and the archaea Methanothermobacter. This work not only provides crucial data on the anaerobic biodigestibility of BPs but also enriches the understanding of the BPs degradation mechanisms, which are of great importance for future popularization of BP products and simultaneously relieving the environmental pollution.

Insights into organic loading rates of anaerobic digestion for biogas production: a review

Anaerobic digestion (AD) for biogas production is affected by many factors that includes organic loading rate (OLR). This OLR appears to be closely linked to various other factors and understanding these linkages would therefore allow the sole use of OLR for process performance monitoring, control, as well as reactor design. This review's objective is to collate the various AD factor specific studies, then relate these factors' role in OLR fluctuations. By further analyzing the influence of OLR on the AD performance, it would then be possible, once all the other factors have been determined and fixed, to manage an AD plant by monitoring and controlling OLR only. Decisions on reactor design, process kinetics, biogas yield and process stability can then be made much more quickly and with minimal troubleshooting steps.

Demand-oriented biogas production and biogas storage in digestate by flexibly feeding a full-scale biogas plant

This work studied the demand-oriented biogas production and the biogas storage in digestate by flexibly feeding a full-scale research biogas plant. The investigated continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) was equipped with a fast-moving submersible motor mixer and a slow-moving inclined shaft agitator. A model for the biogas storage in digestate was introduced and tested in full scale using temporally highly resolved volume flow measurements. An increase in mixing time led to a faster biogas production: A two to five hours reduction of the time to reach the maximum biogas production after feeding occurred in our experiments. However, no influence of the rheology and of the mixing regime on the methane yield could be derived from the measurements. Further, a 30% reduction of the stored biogas in the digestate occurred when the viscosity was lowered by 66%. This knowledge can be used to enhance the existing biogas formation models.

A fluorescence-based yeast sensor for monitoring acetic acid

Accumulation of acetic acid indicates an imbalance of the process due to a disturbed composition of the microorganisms. Hence, monitoring the acetic acid concentration is an important parameter to control the biogas process. Here, we describe the generation and validation of a fluorescence-based whole cell sensor for the detection of acetic acid based on the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Acetic acid induces the transcription of a subset of genes. The 5´-regulatory sequences (5´ URS) of these genes were cloned into a multicopy plasmid to drive the expression of a red fluorescent reporter gene. The 5´ URS of YGP1, encoding a cell wall-related glycoprotein, led to a 20-fold increase of fluorescence upon addition of 30 mM acetic acid to the media. We show that the system allows estimating the approximate concentration of acetic acid in condensation samples from a biogas plant. To avoid plasmid loss and increase the long-term stability of the sensor, we integrated the reporter construct into the yeast genome and tested the suitability of spores for long-term storage of sensor cells. Lowering the reporter gene's copy number resulted in a significant drop of the fluorescence, which can be compensated by applying a yeast pheromone-based signal amplification system.

Influence of Enzyme Additives on the Rheological Properties of Digester Slurry and on Biomethane Yield

The use of enzyme additives in anaerobic digestion facilities has increased in recent years. According to the manufacturers, these additives should increase or accelerate the biogas yield and reduce the viscosity of the digester slurry. Such effects were confirmed under laboratory conditions. However, it has not yet been possible to quantify these effects in practice, partly because valid measurements on large-scale plants are expensive and challenging. In this research, a new enzyme product was tested under full-scale conditions. Two digesters were operated at identic process parameters—one digester was treated with an enzyme additive and a second digester was used as reference. A pipe viscometer was designed, constructed and calibrated and the rheological properties of the digester slurry were measured. Non-Newtonian flow behavior was modelled by using the Ostwald–de Baer law. Additionally, the specific biomethane yield of the feedstock was monitored to assess the influence of the enzyme additive on the substrate degradation efficiency. The viscosity measurements revealed a clear effect of the added enzyme product. The consistency factor K was significantly reduced after the enzyme application. There was no observable effect of enzyme application on the substrate degradation efficiency or specific biomethane yield.

Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Wastewater Sludge: A Review of Potential Co-Substrates and Operating Factors for Improved Methane Yield

Anaerobic digestion has been widely employed in waste treatment for its ability to capture methane gas released as a product during the digestion. Certain wastes, however, cannot be easily digested due to their low nutrient level insufficient for anaerobic digestion, thus co-digestion is a viable option. Numerous studies have shown that using co-substrates in anaerobic digestion systems improve methane yields as positive synergisms are established in the digestion medium, and the supply of missing nutrients are introduced by the co-substrates. Nevertheless, large-scale implementation of co-digestion technology is limited by inherent process limitations and operational concerns. This review summarizes the results from numerous laboratory, pilot, and full-scale anaerobic co-digestion (ACD) studies of wastewater sludge with the co-substrates of organic fraction of municipal solid waste, food waste, crude glycerol, agricultural waste, and fat, oil and grease. The critical factors that influence the ACD operation are also discussed. The ultimate aim of this review is to identify the best potential co-substrate for wastewater sludge anaerobic co-digestion and provide a recommendation for future reference. By adding co-substrates, a gain ranging from 13 to 176% in the methane yield was accomplished compared to the mono-digestions.

Effect of Mixing Regimes on Cow Manure Digestion in Impeller Mixed, Unmixed and Chinese Dome Digesters

This study examines the effect of mixing on the performance of anaerobic digestion of cow manure in Chinese dome digesters (CDDs) at ambient temperatures (27–32 °C) in comparison with impeller mixed digesters (STRs) and unmixed digesters (UMDs) at the laboratory scale. The CDD is a type of household digester used in rural and pre-urban areas of developing countries for cooking. They are mixed by hydraulic variation during gas production and gas use. Six digesters (two of each type) were operated at two different influent total solids (TS) concentration, at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 30 days for 319 days. The STRs were mixed at 55 rpm, 10 min/hour; the unmixed digesters were not mixed, and the Chinese dome digesters were mixed once a day releasing the stored biogas under pressure. The reactors exhibited different specific biogas production and treatment efficiencies at steady state conditions. The STR 1 exhibited the highest methane (CH4) production and treatment efficiency (volatile solid (VS) reduction), followed by STR 2. The CDDs performed better (10% more methane) than the UMDs, but less (approx. 8%) compared to STRs. The mixing regime via hydraulic variation in the CDD was limited despite a higher volumetric biogas rate and therefore requires optimization.

Quantitative investigation of hydraulic mixing energy input during batch mode anaerobic digestion and its impact on performance

The relationship between mixing energy input and biogas production was investigated by anaerobically digesting sewage sludge in lab scale, hydraulically mixed, batch mode digesters at six different specific energy inputs. The goal was to identify how mixing energy influenced digestion performance at quantitative levels to help explain the varying results in other published works. The results showed that digester homogeneity was largely uninfluenced by energy input, whereas cumulative biogas production and solids destruction were. With similar solids distributions between conditions, the observed differences were attributed to shear forces disrupting substrate-microbe flocs rather than the formation of temperature and/or concentration gradients. Disruption of the substrate-microbe flocs produced less favourable conditions for hydrolytic bacteria, resulting in less production of biomass and more biogas. Overall, this hypothesis explains the current body of research including the inhibitory conditions reported at extreme mixing power inputs. However, further work is required to definitively prove it.

Development of energy efficient mixing strategies in egg-shaped anaerobic reactors through 3D CFD simulation

This work describes a 3D computational fluid dynamic model, which characterizes the hydrodynamic behavior of a mixing strategy applied to egg-shaped reactors that lack a mechanical stirring device. The model is based on Navier-Stokes and material balance equations without a chemical reaction. To describe the behavior of mixing, initial water feed flows of 6, 7.5 and 9 mL s(-1) were used. An experimental validation was subsequently carried out using a pulse technique, with NaCl as a tracer. The residence time distributions were quantitatively determined. Then, the degradation process of the wastewater sludge was characterized by studying the time dependence of the dynamic viscosity, the concentration of volatile solids and the density of wastewater sludge. The data resulting were introduced into the validated model, and five feed flows from 9 to 13 mL s(-1), the best performance found was with feed flow of 11 mL s(-1).

Identifying proper agitation interval to prevent floating layers formation of corn stover and improve biogas production in anaerobic digestion

Floating tests were conducted in anaerobic digestion with different OLR of corn stover to investigate formation of floating layers and to find proper agitation interval for preventing floating layer formation. Floating layers were formed in the early stage of no-agitation period. The daily biogas production was decreased by 81.87-87.90% in digesters with no agitation and feeding compared with digesters having agitation. Reduction of biogas production was mainly attributed to poor contact of substrate-microorganisms. Agitation intervals of 10 h, 6 h, and 2 h were found to be proper for eliminating floating layer at OLR of 1.44, 1.78 and 2.11 g(TS) L(-1) d(-1), respectively. The proper agitation interval was further validated by anaerobic experiments. It showed that proper agitation interval could not only prevent floating layer formation and achieve high biogas production but also increase energy efficiency of anaerobic digestion. The finding is useful for operating anaerobic digester with corn stover in a cost-effective way.

Performance of and methanogenic communities involved in an innovative anaerobic process for the treatment of food wastewater in a pilot plant

In this study, dual-cylindrical anaerobic digesters were designed and built on the pilot plant scale for the improvement of anaerobic digestion efficiency. The removal efficiency of organics, biogas productivity, yield, and microbial communities was evaluated as performance parameters of the digester. During the stable operational period in the continuous mode, the removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand and total solids were 74.1 and 65.1%, respectively. Biogas productivities of 63.9 m(3)/m(3)-FWW and 1.3 m(3)/kg-VSremoved were measured. The hydrogenotrophic methanogen orders, Methanomicrobiales and Methanobacteriales, were predominant over the aceticlastic methanogen order, Methanosarcinaceae, probably due to the tolerance of the hydrogenotrophs to environmental perturbation in the field and their faster growth rate compared with that of the aceticlastics.

Degradation efficiency of agricultural biogas plants--a full-scale study

The degradation efficiency of 21 full-scale agricultural CSTR biogas plants was investigated. The residual methane potential of the digestion stages was determined in batch digestion tests (20.0 and 37.0 °C). The results of this study showed that the residual methane yield is significantly correlated to the HRT (r=-0.73). An almost complete degradation of the input substrates was achieved due to a HRT of more than 100 days (0.097±0.017 Nm(3)/kg VS). The feedstock characteristics have the largest impact to the degradation time. It was found that standard values of the methane yield are a helpful tool for evaluating the degradation efficiency. Adapting the HRT to the input materials is the key factor for an efficient degradation in biogas plants. No influence of digester series configuration to the VS degradation was found. The mean VS degradation rate in the total reactor systems was 78±7%.

Performance of semi-continuous membrane bioreactor in biogas production from toxic feedstock containing D-Limonene

A novel membrane bioreactor configuration containing both free and encased cells in a single reactor was proposed in this work. The reactor consisted of 120g/L of free cells and 120g/L of encased cells in a polyvinylidene fluoride membrane. Microcrystalline cellulose (Avicel) and d-Limonene were used as the models of substrate and inhibitor for biogas production, respectively. Different concentrations of d-Limonene i.e., 1, 5, and 10g/L were tested, and an experiment without the addition of d-Limonene was prepared as control. The digestion was performed in a semi-continuous thermophilic reactor for 75 days. The result showed that daily methane production in the reactor with the addition of 1g/L d-Limonene was similar to that of control. A lag phase was observed in the presence of 5g/L d-Limonene; however, after 10 days, the methane production increased and reached a similar production to that of the control after 15 days.

Integrated application of upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor for the treatment of wastewaters

The UASB process among other treatment methods has been recognized as a core method of an advanced technology for environmental protection. This paper highlights the treatment of seven types of wastewaters i.e. palm oil mill effluent (POME), distillery wastewater, slaughterhouse wastewater, piggery wastewater, dairy wastewater, fishery wastewater and municipal wastewater (black and gray) by UASB process. The purpose of this study is to explore the pollution load of these wastewaters and their treatment potential use in upflow anaerobic sludge blanket process. The general characterization of wastewater, treatment in UASB reactor with operational parameters and reactor performance in terms of COD removal and biogas production are thoroughly discussed in the paper. The concrete data illustrates the reactor configuration, thus giving maximum awareness about upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor for further research. The future aspects for research needs are also outlined.

VFA generation from waste activated sludge: effect of temperature and mixing

The success of enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) depends on the constant availability of volatile fatty acids (VFAs). To reduce costs, waste streams would be a preferred source. Since VFAs were shown to vary in the incoming sewage and fermentate from primary sludge the next available source is waste activated sludge (WAS). The opportunity is particularly good in plants where WAS is stored before shipment. Little information is however available on the rate of VFA release from such sludge, especially at the lower temperatures and under the storage conditions typically found in colder climates. Bench-scale batch tests were performed to investigate the effect of temperature and requirement for mixing on VFA generation from WAS generated in full scale non-EBPR wastewater treatment plant. WAS fermentation was found highly temperature-dependent. Hydrolysis rate constant (k(h)) values of 0.17, 0.08 and 0.04 d⁻¹ at 24.6, 14 and 4°C were obtained, respectively. Arrhenius temperature coefficient was calculated to be 1.07. It took 5 d to complete hydrolysis at 24.6°C, 7 d at 14°C, and 9 d at 4°C. The fermentation lasted for 20 d. At 24.6°C the mixed reactor reached 84% of the overall VFA production only in 5 d. When temperature dropped to 14 and 4°C, the ratio of VFA production at day 10 to overall VFA production in the mixed reactor were 62% and 48%, respectively. The overall VFA-COD concentration in the non-mixed reactors was much lower than the mixed reactors. The information is important for the designer as there was uncertainty with the effect of temperature and mixing on sludge fermentation.

Development of anaerobic digestion methods for palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment

Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is a highly polluting wastewater that pollutes the environment if discharged directly due to its high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) concentration. Anaerobic digestion has been widely used for POME treatment with large emphasis placed on capturing the methane gas released as a product of this biodegradation treatment method. The anaerobic digestion method is recognized as a clean development mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto protocol. Certified emission reduction (CER) can be obtained by using methane gas as a renewable energy. This review aims to discuss the various anaerobic treatments of POME and factors that influence the operation of anaerobic treatment. The POME treatment at both mesophilic and thermophilic temperature ranges are also analyzed.

Effect of anaerobic digestion on oocysts of the protozoan Eimeria tenella

The effect of anaerobic digestion of poultry waste on oocysts of the protozoan Eimeria tenella, a common enteric pathogen that causes coccidiosis in poultry, was investigated in this study. Thermophilic (50 degrees C) and mesophilic (35 degrees C) anaerobic digestors, with poultry manure as the substrate, were inoculated with the oocysts. The oocysts were damaged during anaerobic digestion, as determined by morphological change and loss of their ability to sporulate. The recovered oocysts were tested for their infectivity in young chicks, as measured by body weight gain, mortality, and cecal lesions. Oocysts lost all their infectivity during thermophilic digestion, while oocysts subjected to mesophilic digestion remained moderately infective in comparison with untreated oocysts, which produced severe coccidiosis, high mortality, and low body weight gain in chicks. Oocysts were inactivated at 50 degrees C when they were suspended in digestor fluid or saline. Inactivation at 35 degrees C was significantly stronger in the digestor fluid than in the saline, which implied that factors other than temperature were involved in the lethal effect of anaerobic digestion on protozoan oocysts. In this study we demonstrated that the treatment of animal waste by anaerobic digestion, especially at a thermophilic temperature, has the benefits of pathogen control and protection of human and animal health in a farm environment.

Methane from Anaerobic Fermentation

Conventional anaerobic digestion is an established technology for wastewater stabilization, but methane production rates and net energy yields are generally too low to make the process competitive as a source of methane. Numerous improvements are being developed to make conversion of plant biomass to methane and simultaneous waste stabilization-methane production practical. Among these improvements are innovative-digester designs and process configurations. Efforts to commercialize modern anaerobic digestion technology are progressing.