Abstract
Anaerobic digestion is an important technology to receive energy from various types of biomass. In this work, the impact of granular activated carbon (GAC) on the mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of sugar beet pulp and distillers grains was investigated. After a short period, anaerobic reactors began to produce biomethane and were ready for completion within 19–24 days. The addition of GAC to reactors (5–10 g L−1) significantly enhanced the methane production rate and consumption of produced volatile fatty acids. Thus, the maximum methane production rate increased by 13.7% in the presence of GAC (5 g L−1). Bacterial and archaeal community structure and dynamics were investigated, based on 16S rRNA genes analysis. The abundant classes of bacteria in GAC-free and GAC-containing reactors were Clostridia, Bacteroidia, Actinobacteria, and Synergistia. Methanogenic communities were mainly represented by the genera Methanosarcina, Methanoculleus, Methanothrix, and Methanomassiliicoccus in GAC-free and GAC-containing reactors. Our results indicate that the addition of granular activated carbon at appropriate dosages has a positive effect on anaerobic co-digestion of by-products of the processing of sugar beet and ethanol distillation process.
Highlights
Anaerobic digestion is an important technology to receive energy from organic wastes in the form of energy-rich biogas, whilst the digestate can be further used as bio-fertilizer
During the first batch experiments (ISR 1.43), five different conditions were monitored: control reactors (C1) and reactors supplemented with granular activated carbon (GAC) (1 g L−1 (G1), 2 g L−1 (G2), 5 g L−1 (G3), and 10 g L−1 (G4))
The mesophilic reactors were operated for 24 days, and during this period, four samples were collected from each reactor to study the composition of the digested mixture
Summary
Anaerobic digestion is an important technology to receive energy from organic wastes in the form of energy-rich biogas, whilst the digestate can be further used as bio-fertilizer. A by-product of the sugar and ethanol industries, is composed of polysaccharides, proteins, lipids, and free sugars, and is processed into a dried beet pulp feed concentrate (DBP) [5]. During the production of ethanol from grain, a large amount of stillage by-product is formed. This by-product, containing yeast cells, proteins, lipids, crude fibers, amino acids, and free sugars, is often processed into a dried distillers grains with solubles feed concentrate (DDGS) by using an energy-intensive drying process [6]. Both by-products are extensively produced in the Russian
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