Abstract
The objective of the current work is to study the impact of the operational parameters' variation (HRT, OLR and T) on biomethane productivity in a periodic anaerobic baffled reactor (PABR). The feedstock used was a biomass product named food residue biomass (FORBI), which is dried and shredded source-separated household food waste. The PABR is an innovative, high-rate bioreactor. Apart from the hydraulic retention time (HRT) and the organic loading rate (OLR), an important operational parameter is the switching period (T) of the feeding compartment: when T is high, the bioreactor operation is similar to an anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR), while when it is low, the operation approaches that of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASBR). Nine distinct experimental phases were conducted, during which the operational parameters of the PABR were consecutively modified: the HRT varied from 9 to 2.5 days, T between 2 days and 1 and finally the OLR from 1.24 gCOD/Lbioreactor*d to 8.08 gCOD/Lbioreactor*d. The maximum biomethane yield was 384 LCH4/kgFORBI corresponding to the operation at HRT = 5 d, OLR = 2.14 gCOD/Lbioreactor*d and T = 2 days. Similar efficiency (333 LCH4/kg-FORBI) was achieved at higher OLR (4.53 gCOD/Lbioreactor*d).
Highlights
Population growth combined with the rapid urbanization that took place during the last decades were the accelerators leading to one of the most complex challenges of our days: waste management
This study aims at assessing the biomethane yield and COD removal efficiency of the bioreactor treating food waste under various hydraulic retention time (HRT) and organic loading rate (OLR) values, in comparison with a variety of other types of bioreactors as presented in a previous study conducted by Lytras et al (2020)
The basic operational parameters were: HRT: 5 d and OLR: 4.53 gCOD/L*d for both experimental phases, while T was reduced from 2 d in phase 3 to 1 d in phase 4
Summary
Population growth combined with the rapid urbanization that took place during the last decades were the accelerators leading to one of the most complex challenges of our days: waste management. The expected economic development, as well as population growth, will sharply increase the absolute numbers of waste generation during the coming decades (Melikoglu et al 2013). FW based on its physicochemical properties could evolve to be one of the most important resources in the foreseeable future, if only sound management will be implemented. Considering these figures, it is apparent that innovative (FW) valorization approaches are necessary to be developed in order to face this challenge in an environmentally sound and economically rational direction, via maximum nutrients valorization and recovery (Zhang et al 2014)
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