Abstract
Vinasse is a residue that remains after the fractional distillation of fermented juice to obtain ethanol. Intended to extend the opportunities for by-product recovery, vinasse could be used as feedstock for biomethane production, departing from the linear focus of vinasse production, treatment, and disposal, to vinasse production and reuse. However, the high concentrations of sulfate and its inhibitory effect on biological activity could lower the yield of biomethane production. To overcome that, it was studied the potential of ultrafiltration membranes to alleviate the concentrations of sulfate from vinasse and concentrate the organic matter, intended to enhance the biomethane production potential. Raw vinasse, ultrafiltration concentrate, and ultrafiltration permeate were subjected to anaerobic digestion experiments and the cumulative biomethane yield was monitored over 70 days. The ultrafiltration concentrate presented the highest degradation rate (μm: 2.83 ± 0.24 mL/g-VS.d.mL-sample) and longest lag-phase time (λ: 12.31 ± 0.83 d) compared with raw sugarcane vinasse (μm: 1.44 ± 0.11 mL/g-VS.d.mL-sample; λ: 6.57 ± 0.93 d) and ultrafiltration permeate (μm: 1.14 ± 0.04 mL/g-VS.d.mL-sample; λ: 2.92 ± 0.74 d). The potential for biomethane recovery was complemented by an energetic analysis involved in biomethane production and processing. The biomethane recovery from ultrafiltration concentrate presented the lowest specific energy consumption (3.34 MJ/Nm³-CH4), followed by raw sugarcane vinasse (3.51 MJ/Nm³-CH4) and ultrafiltration permeate (3.64 MJ/Nm³-CH4). The remaining digested streams could still be potentially applied to soils for better use of their nutrients, however without an excessive load of organic matter already consumed during anaerobic digestion. Overall, the study demonstrated an effective alternative to salinity relief in raw sugarcane vinasse by ultrafiltration membranes and an alternative of higher vinasse valorization.
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