Dynamics of Biogas Fermentation for Industrial Waste and Hydrolysate of Corn Stover

Abstract

In order to fully utilize industrial waste and corn stover, the experiments were conducted using gulonic acid waste liquor and hydrolysate of corn stover as the methane fermentation raw materials. Real time CH4 and CO2 monitors were used to analyze the anaerobic digestion process. Different temperatures, nutrition and the rates of raw material supply were adopted to investigate the optimal methane fermentation condition. Experiment results showed that both gulonic acid waste liquor and hydrolysate of corn stover were easy to produce methane with as high as 800mL biogas per gram COD biogas yield and 77% methane content under an optimum condition. The potential inhibitor, Sulfate, in the hydrolysate corn stover showed no obvious inhibition at 0.3% level. The investigation also showed that high level of substrate would cause acid production and pH diminishing and finally result in CO2 increase and CH4 decrease. These phenomena indicate that methane production bacteria are the weak portion of the anaerobic digestion system.