Fate of LCFA in the co-digestion of cow manure, food waste and discontinuous addition of oil

Abstract

Different concentrations of oily waste were added in a discontinuous mode and recurrently to anaerobic continuous stirred tank reactors fed with cow manure and food waste. Four continuous stirred tank reactors were run in parallel. A control reactor (R1) received no additional oil and R2, R3 and R4 received increasing concentrations of oil in two different experimental approaches. First, the lipids composition was forced to change suddenly, in three moments, without changing the total chemical oxygen demand (COD) fed to the reactors. The only long chain fatty acid (LCFA) detected onto the R1 solid matrix was palmitic acid (C16:0). Nevertheless in the solid matrix of R2, R3 and R4 C16:0 and stearic acid were detected. For occasional increase in the oil concentration up to 7.7 gCOD oil/L reactor (55% Oil COD/Total COD) no statistical differences were detected between the reactors, in terms of methane production, effluent soluble COD, effluent volatile fatty acids and total and volatile solids removal. Therefore this experiment allowed to conclude that cow manure–food waste co-digestion presents sufficient buffer capacity to endure solid-associated LCFA concentration up to 20–25 gCOD-LCFA/kgTS. In a second experiment higher concentrations of oil were added, raising occasionally the concentration in the reactors to 9, 12, 15 and 18 gCOD oil/L reactor. All pulses had a positive effect in methane production, with the exception of the highest oil pulse concentration, that persistently impaired the reactor performance. This experiment demonstrates that threshold values for LCFA and C16:0 accumulation onto the solid matrix, of about 180–220 gCOD-LCFA/kgTS and 120–150 gCOD-C16:0/kgTS, should not be surpassed in order to prevent persistent reactor failure, as occurs in some full scale co-digestion plants.