Abstract

The majority of municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) in Sweden produce biogas from sewage sludge. In order to increase the methane production, co-digestion of internal sludge with Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) might be feasible in the future. The objective of this study was therefore to find a beneficial solution for the utilization of OFMSW at the WWTP in Varberg, Sweden. The effects of co-digesting primary sludge (PS) and OFMSW collected in the municipality, in different mixing ratios, were investigated by semi-continuous anaerobic digestion assays. Furthermore, the effects of the addition of a commercial trace elements mixture solution (CTES), available on the market in Sweden, were also examined. Co-digestion of OFMSW and PS resulted in specific methane yields of 404, 392, and 375 NmL CH4/g volatile solids (VS), obtained during semi-continuous operations of 301, 357 and 385 days, for the reactors fed with OMFSW:PS ratio of 4:1, 3:1, and 1:1, and at maximum organic loading rates (OLRs) achieved of 4.0, 4.0 and 5.0 gVS/L/d, respectively. Furthermore, mono-digestion of OFMSW failed already at OLR of 1.0 gVS/L/d, however, an OLR of 4.0 gVS/L/d could be achieved with addition of 14 µL/g VS Commercial Trace Element Solutions (CTES) leading to 363 mL CH4/g VS methane production. These experiments were running during 411 days. Hence, higher process efficiency was obtained when using co-digestion of OFMSW and PS compared to that of OFMSW in mono-digestion. Co-digestion is a more feasible option where a balanced Carbon/Nitrogen (C/N) ratio and nutrient supply can be maintained.

Highlights

  • Bio-methanation is a complex microbiological process operating in the absence of oxygen, stabilizing organic matter, while producing biogas which is primarily comprised of methane and carbon dioxide [1]

  • The two substrates investigated were obtained in Varberg, Sweden: primary sludge (PS) was obtained from the pre-thickener at the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), Getteröverket, and the OFMSW was source-sorted and collected in paper bags by the households in the municipality and it was transported from the trash cans in every second week

  • PS consist of different bacteria cultures, which may play an important role in the degradation processes [3], these results indicate that addition of PS could not replace Commercial Trace Element Solutions (CTES) addition in order to stabilize a failed process, probably due to a higher availability of the

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Summary

Introduction

Bio-methanation is a complex microbiological process operating in the absence of oxygen, stabilizing organic matter, while producing biogas which is primarily comprised of methane and carbon dioxide [1] This process, called Anaerobic Digestion (AD), consists of four together-linked degradation steps; hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis [2], resulting in biogas and decomposed digestate residue as the main products [3]. Many of the TEs are important micronutrients, acting as microbial agents and are crucial co-factors involved in enzymatic activities of acidogenesis and methanogenesis [4,8,9,10] These previous investigations were focusing on the addition of specific TEs, and only a few studies were dealing with the evaluation of Commercial

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