Anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge, wine vinasse and poultry manure for bio-hydrogen production

Abstract

The influence of the addition of poultry manure on the thermophilic acid co-fermentation of sewage sludge and wine vinasse was studied. For this, discontinuous tests were carried out to determine the potential for hydrogen production (BHP tests) of 50:50 mixtures of sludge and wine vinasse with different amounts of poultry manure (10 g/L, 20 g/L and 30 g/L). The hydrogen production performance was determined under the tested conditions. The experimental results revealed performance values of TCOD and SCOD, TS and VS, similar in all tests, with removal efficiencies lower than 25%. Likewise, an increase in the production of volatile fatty acids was observed. Regarding the yield, the best results were obtained for the mixture with 10 g/L of poultry manure (with a C/N ratio: 27). Thus, the H2 production and the yield expressed as mL H2/gVSadded was 18.20% and 27.57% higher in the test with 10 g/L of poultry manure compared to the test with 20 g/L. Furthermore, from 20 g/L of poultry manure, the mixtures showed poorer purification behavior and performance.