Abstract
ObjectiveTo assess the effect of small temperature increases in mesophilic sludge-based digesters in order to develop and evaluate strategies for improving the biogas production in full-scale digesters.ResultsMethane production was strongly affected by small temperature differences, and this result was consistent across samples from 15 full-scale digesters. The specific methane yield varied between 42 and 97.5 ml g VS−1 after 15 days of incubation at 35 °C, and improved when increasing the digester temperature to 39 °C. Only a limited quantity of additional gas was required to balance out the cost of heating and a positive energy balance was obtained. Further increases in temperature, in some cases, negatively affected the production when operated at 42 °C compared to 39 °C.ConclusionsSmall temperature increases should be applied to mesophilic sludge-based digesters to optimize the biogas production and is applicable to digesters operated in the lower mesophilic temperature range.
Highlights
Technologies producing renewable energy have gained more attention as the interest in phasing out fossil fuels has increased
Some differences were observed in the operational parameters controlled by the operators
The Anaerobic digestion (AD) were operated in the mesophilic range 33–41 °C
Summary
Technologies producing renewable energy have gained more attention as the interest in phasing out fossil fuels has increased. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is one of the most promising technologies, and it is already applied at full-scale around the world. This microbial mediated process catalyzes the degradation of a variety of wastes, facilitating the production of biogas containing the energy-carrier methane (MataAlvarez et al 2014; Weiland 2010). There has been an increasing interest in applying the AD-technology to the production of renewable energy (Deublein and Steinhauser 2011). This requires a thorough knowledge of the AD-process, and an identification of the most energy-efficient optimization strategies for sustainable reactor operation
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