Increased biogas production in a wastewater treatment plant by anaerobic co-digestion of fruit and vegetable waste and sewer sludge – A full scale study

2011 ◽  
Vol 64 (9) ◽  
pp. 1851-1856 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan D. Park ◽  
Ronald W. Thring ◽  
Randy P. Garton ◽  
Michael P. Rutherford ◽  
Steve S. Helle

Anaerobic digestion is a well established technology for the reduction of organic matter and stabilization of wastewater. Biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, is produced as a useful by-product of the process. Current solid waste management at the city of Prince George is focused on disposal of waste and not on energy recovery. Co-digestion of fresh fruit and vegetable waste with sewer sludge can improve biogas yield by increasing the load of biodegradable material. A six week full-scale project co-digesting almost 15,000 kg of supermarket waste was completed. Average daily biogas production was found to be significantly higher than in previous years. Digester operation remained stable over the course of the study as indicated by the consistently low volatile acids-to-alkalinity ratio. Undigested organic material was visible in centrifuged sludge suggesting that the waste should have been added to the primary digester to prevent short circuiting and to increase the hydraulic retention time of the freshly added waste.

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 487-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Shang ◽  
B.R. Johnson ◽  
R. Sieger

A steady-state implementation of the IWA Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) has been applied to the anaerobic digesters in two wastewater treatment plants. The two plants have a wastewater treatment capacity of 76,000 and 820,000 m3/day, respectively, with approximately 12 and 205 dry metric tons sludge fed to digesters per day. The main purpose of this study is to compare the ADM1 model results with full-scale anaerobic digestion performance. For both plants, the prediction of the steady-state ADM1 implementation using the suggested physico-chemical and biochemical parameter values was able to reflect the results from the actual digester operations to a reasonable degree of accuracy on all parameters. The predicted total solids (TS) and volatile solids (VS) concentration in the digested biosolids, as well as the digester volatile solids destruction (VSD), biogas production and biogas yield are within 10% of the actual digester data. This study demonstrated that the ADM1 is a powerful tool for predicting the steady-state behaviour of anaerobic digesters treating sewage sludges. In addition, it showed that the use of a whole wastewater treatment plant simulator for fractionating the digester influent into the ADM1 input parameters was successful.


2016 ◽  
Vol 73 (10) ◽  
pp. 2386-2393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavla Šmejkalová ◽  
Veronika Kužníková ◽  
Jan Merna ◽  
Soňa Hermanová

Anaerobic processes for the treatment of plastic materials waste represent versatile and effective approach in environmental protection and solid waste management. In this work, anaerobic biodegradability of model aliphatic polyesters, poly(L-lactic acid) (PLA), and poly(ɛ-caprolactone) (PCL), in the form of powder and melt-pressed films with varying molar mass, was studied. Biogas production was explored in batch laboratory trials at 55 ± 1°C under a nitrogen atmosphere. The inoculum used was thermophilic digested sludge (total solids concentration of 2.9%) from operating digesters at the Central Waste Water Treatment Plant in Prague, Czech Republic. Methanogenic biodegradation of PCLs typically yielded from 54 to 60% of the theoretical biogas yield. The biodegradability of PLAs achieved from 56 to 84% of the theoretical value. High biogas yield (up to 677 mL/g TS) with high methane content (more than 60%), comparable with conventionally processed materials, confirmed the potential of polyester samples for anaerobic treatment in the case of their exploitation in agriculture or as a packaging material in the food industry.


2015 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 355-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Hernández-Shek ◽  
L. S. Cadavid-Rodríguez ◽  
I. V. Bolaños ◽  
A. C. Agudelo-Henao

The potential to recover bioenergy from anaerobic digestion of water hyacinth (WH) and from its co-digestion with fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) was investigated. Initially, biogas and methane production were studied using the biochemical methane potential (BMP) test at 2 g volatile solids (VS) L−1 of substrate concentration, both in the digestion of WH alone and in its co-digestion with FVW (WH-FVW ratio of 70:30). Subsequently, the biogas production was optimized in terms of total solids (TS) concentration, testing 4 and 6% of TS. The BMP test showed a biogas yield of 0.114 m3 biogas kg−1 VSadded for WH alone. On the other hand, the biogas potential from the WH-FVW co-digestion was 0.141 m3 biogas kg−1 VSadded, showing an increase of 23% compared to that of WH alone. Maximum biogas production of 0.230 m3 biogas kg−1 VSadded was obtained at 4% of TS in the co-digestion of WH-FVW. Using semi-continuously stirred tank reactors, 1.3 m3 biogas yield kg−1 VSadded was produced using an organic loading rate of 2 kg VS m−3 d−1 and hydraulic retention time of 15 days. It was also found that a WH-FVW ratio of 80:20 improved the process in terms of pH stability. Additionally, it was found that nitrogen can be recovered in the liquid effluent with a potential for use as a liquid fertilizer.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Blackbeard ◽  
James Lloyd ◽  
Mirela Magyar ◽  
John Mieog ◽  
Karl G. Linden ◽  
...  

The 350 ML per d Eastern Treatment Plant (ETP) tertiary facility produces “Class A” water for the city of Melbourne, Australia, which is used for irrigation, dual reticulation and fire fighting.


2019 ◽  
Vol 133 ◽  
pp. 676-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Martí-Herrero ◽  
G. Soria-Castellón ◽  
A. Diaz-de-Basurto ◽  
R. Alvarez ◽  
D. Chemisana

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (7) ◽  
pp. 1252-1257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan D. Park ◽  
Ronald W. Thring ◽  
Steve S. Helle

Fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) was co-digested with first stage (FSS) and second stage anaerobic digester sludge (SSS) separately, over the course of 10 days, in batch reactors. Addition of FVW significantly increased the methane production in both sludges. After 10 days of digestion FSS + FVW produced 514 ± 57 L CH4 kg VS−1added compared with 392 ± 16 L CH4 for the SSS + FVW. The increased methane yield was most likely due to the higher inoculum substrate ratio of the FSS. The final VS and COD contents of the sewer sludge and FVW mixtures were not significantly different from the control values suggesting that all of the FVW added was degraded within 10 days. It is recommended that FVW be added to the first stage of the anaerobic digester in order to maximize methane generation.


2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 283-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Iranpour ◽  
R. Palacios ◽  
H.H.J. Cox ◽  
V. Abkian

Fecal coliform recurrence has been observed at the City of Los Angeles Hyperion Treatment Plant during pilot-scale experiments with a designated thermophilic battery of six anaerobic digesters, while other digesters were still at a mesophilic temperature. Several lab and full-scale experiments indicated the following possible causes of the growth/reactivation of fecal coliforms in post-digestion: a) contamination of thermophilically digested biosolids with mesophilically digested biosolids; b) a large drop in the biosolids temperature between the centrifuges and silos, which could have allowed the reactivation and/or growth of fecal coliforms. These were resolved by the full plant conversion to thermophilic anaerobic digestion and design modifications of the post-digestion train.


1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (12) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Çiftçi ◽  
I. Öztürk

This paper presents the results of nine years of experience in design and operating of full-scale anaerobic-aerobic treatment plants in a fermentation industry producing baker's yeast from sugarbeet molasses. The PAKMAYA Izmit Factory has a large two-staged treatment plant since 1986: anaerobic first stage and aerobic second stage. The anaerobic reactors were constructed as Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactors (UASBR) with internal and external sludge recirculation facilities. Average COD removals remain in the range of 75% in the mesophilic anaerobic stage. Average daily biogas production rates are as high as 20,000 m3/day. This treatment plant is one of the largest in the world in terms of biogas production. Similar systems were constructed later in two other factories of the same company (Cumaova-Bolu, Kemalpasa-Izmir). The biogas conversion yield is about 0.65 m3 per kg COD removed. The energy produced from the biogas used in the boiler houses is about 35% of the total energy requirement of the factory. The effluents from the anaerobic first stage are fed to the subsequent aerobic treatment system by mixing with low strength effluents of the factory. The aerobic second stage was designed and operated as an extended aeration activated sludge system. The COD removals of the aerobic stage are averaging at about 60 to 75%. This paper also discusses the operating problems encountered in the various stages of the treatment system and their solutions during the nine years of full-scale operation in three different treatment plants of PAKMAYA.


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