Maximum Methane Production Rate Research Articles

Effect on Ammonia Inhibition Mitigation in the Anaerobic Digestion Process with Zero-Valent Iron

Ammonia inhibition is an important factor impacting methane production efficiency during the anaerobic digestion of high-solid organic wastes. This study investigated the effect of micro-sized zero-valent iron (m-ZVI) on the anaerobic digestion of excess sewage sludge and thermal hydrolyzed sludge using batch mode experiments. The effect of m-ZVI on ammonia inhibition mitigation was also studied. Results showed that the kinetic characteristics of the methane production rate, lag phase, and methane production potential of the anaerobic digestion of excess sludge and thermal hydrolyzed sludge were not impacted by the addition of m-ZVI at a dosage of 4 g·L-1 and 10 g·L-1. However, during the inhibited anaerobic digestion process with a high ammonia concentration, the addition of 4 g·L-1 and 10 g·L-1 of m-ZVI was able to shorten the lag phase from 18.61 d (the control) to 17.22 d and 16.18 d, respectively. Moreover, the maximum methane production rate (based on the VS) increased from 6.34 mL·(d·g)-1(the control) to 7.84 mL·(d·g)-1 (4 g·L-1 m-ZVI) and 7.39 mL·(d·g)-1 (10 g·L-1 m-ZVI). The pH buffer system was not influenced by the chemical reaction of m-ZVI in the anaerobic digestion, although the relative abundance of the dominant methanogenic archaea (Methanosarcina) improved greatly from 30.71% (the control) to 53.50% (4 g·L-1 m-ZVI) and 60.30% (10 g·L-1 m-ZVI) at 27 d. This study proved that m-ZVI was incapable of improving the methane production potential of sewage sludge, while the mitigation of ammonia inhibition during anaerobic digestion was enhanced by the stimulating effect on methanogenic archaea.

Role of redox-active biochar with distinctive electrochemical properties to promote methane production in anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge

Biochar has been reported as an effective additive to improve methane production during anaerobic digestion (AD). However, the mechanism for such a stimulatory impact remains unclear. Here we investigated the capability of three pyrolytic biochars with distinctive electrochemical properties (BC300, BC500, BC700) to promote methanogenic performance of anaerobic digesters treating waste activated sludge (WAS). The cumulative methane production and the maximum methane production rate were increased by 46.9% and 181.6%, respectively, with BC300 amendment. By characterizing the electrochemical properties of biochar, we found out that methane production in AD of sludge was positively correlated to biochar’s electron-donating capacity (EDC) rather than its bulk electrical conductivity. These results indicate that the electron transfer mediated by the redox-active functional groups may prevail over the direct electron migration as the predominant mechanism to facilitate interspecies electron transfer in syntrophic communities for enhanced methanogenesis. Microbial community analysis suggests that biochar enriched Methanosarcina and Methanobacterium. Overall, this study shows that functional groups-mediated electron transfer contributes greatly to the improved methane production in WAS digester with biochar amendment.

Effect of organic loading rate on anaerobic digestion of raw cheese whey: experimental evaluation and mathematical modeling

AbstractWhey is a high strength waste product of cheese manufacture. Anaerobic digestion of cheese allows pollution potential reduction and simultaneously energy production. Organic loading rate (OLR) is an important operating variable for anaerobic digestion (AD) process related to system stability, waste treatment capacity and biogas production. The actual OLR depends on the types of wastes (i.e., content of chemical oxygen demand [COD]) fed into a digester. In this paper, the effect of OLR on the AD process of the raw cheese whey in a semi-continuous up-flow system is studied experimentally and with numerical simulations using a simple dynamical model calibrated with experimental data. The digester operation was performed for 90 days, doubling the OLR every 30 days, from OLR of 2.5–10 gCOD L−1 d−1. Experimental results show that the increase in OLR favors the production of biogas. However, the proportion of methane may decrease. The highest methane yield and the most considerable substrate degradation were obtained at OLR of 5 gCOD L−1 d−1 and 10 gCOD L−1 d−1, respectively. The proposed mathematical model is used to describe the dynamic behavior of key variables as COD, volatile fatty acids (VFA) and methane production. A good fit between the variables estimated by the mathematical model and experimental data was obtained, reaching determination coefficients (R2) greater than 0.8. Therefore, this model might be beneficial in predicting the maximum methane production rate and the maximum OLR that could be used without risking the AD process stability.

The role of rice husk biochar addition in anaerobic digestion for sweet sorghum under high loading condition

Biochar is a carbon rich product made from the biomass pyrolysis process. Recently, biochar addition in anaerobic digestion processes has attracted attention for its possible functions to act as pH stabilizing agent, microbial carrier, and interspecies electron transfer. In this study, the effects of rice husk biochar addition in sorghum anaerobic digestion were investigated in batch tests. Under high F/M (food to microorganism) ratio conditions, obvious pH decreases and volatile fatty acids (VFA) accumulation was observed. Addition of 15 g/L biochar was found effective to increase the sorghum maximum methane production rate by 25 % and shorten the lag phase time by 44 %. Further biochar concentration increase showed little effects. Alkalinity increase brought by biochar addition contributed to the performance enhancement. Moreover, the promotive effects of biochar addition on degradation of acetic acid, propionic and butyric acid were not obvious under neutral pH conditions.

Effect of food to microorganisms (F/M) ratio on biohythane production via single-stage dark fermentation

Hythane is a mixture of hydrogen and methane gases which are generally produced in separate ways. This work studied mesophilic biohythane gas (H2+CH4+CO2) production in a bioreactor via single-stage dark fermentation. The fermentation was conducted in batch mode using mixed anaerobic microflora and food waste and condensed molasses fermentation soluble to elucidate the effects of food to microorganisms (F/M) ratio (ranging from 0.2 to 38.2) on gas production, metabolite variation, kinetics and biohythane-composition indicator performances. The experimental results indicate that the F/M ratio and fermentation time affect biohythane production efficiency with values of peak maximum hydrogen production rate 9.60 L/L-d, maximum methane production rate 0.72 L/L-d, and hydrogen yield (HY) of 6.17 mol H2/kg CODadded. Depending on the F/M ratios, the H2, CH4 and CO2 biogas components were 10–60%, 5–20% and 35–70%, respectively. Prospects for the further real application for single-stage biohythane fermentation based on the experimental data are proposed. This work characterizes an important reactor operation factor F/M ratio for innovative single-stage dark fermentation.

Influence of n-Hexadecane and Naphthalene on Anaerobic Digestion: Kinetic Simulation, DOM Variation and Microbial Community Assessment

The influences of n-Hexadecane and naphthalene on anaerobic digestion in batch tests were investigated. The batch kinetic analysis showed that the maximum methane accumulations (141.18 mL of n-Hexadecane and 146.76 mL of naphthalene) and production rates (20.48 mL/h of n-Hexadecane and 20.88 mL/h of naphthalene) were obtained while adding with 30 mg/L n-Hexadecane and 2 mg/L naphthalene, respectively. However, a significant inhibition ratio of 10% was observed at 100 mg/L of n-Hexadecane and 20 mg/L of naphthalene, respectively. The 3D-EEM results showed that the naphthalene was degraded by related microorganism as potential carbon source with concentration lower than 10 mg/L. In addition, the microbial community analysis indicated that the abundance of hydrotrophic Methanolinea and Methanobacterium increased from 7.92% to 12.76% as the increase n-Hexadecane, while decreased from 13.01% to 9.07% with increase of naphthalene. Contrastly, the acetoclasstic methanogens were increased due to the well synthetic action with syntrophic VFA-oxidizing bacteria.

Enhancing anaerobic digestion for rural wastewater treatment with granular activated carbon (GAC) supplementation

Notwithstanding many efforts to increase the efficiency of anaerobic digestion at low-temperature (winter) conditions, a cost-effective and efficient method is lacking. This study proposes a low-cost method of low-temperature (<35 °C) anaerobic digestion of wastewater, involving supplementation with granular activated carbon (GAC). Supplementation with GAC was found to reduce the lag time by 29.8% (from 15.1 to 10.6 days) and increase the maximum methane production rate by 23.4% (from 6.4 to 7.9 mL/day) at 25 °C. Network analysis demonstrated a strong co-occurrence of Syntrophobacteriales and hydrogenotrophic methanogens (Methanobacteriaceae; WSA2; Methanoregulaceae). GAC supplementation can drastically reduce the time required for organic matter decomposition and methane production, thereby increase the efficiency of wastewater treatment.

Pre-treatment study on two-stage biohydrogen and biomethane productions in a continuous co-digestion process from a mixture of swine manure and pineapple waste

This study involves continuous co-digestion of swine manure and pineapple waste mixture using two-stage anaerobic reactors and examines hydraulic retention time (HRT) and substrate heat pre-treatment. The maximum hydrogen and methane production rates of 1488.62 and 991.57 mL/L/d, respectively, reached optimal HRTs of 4.5 h in the hydrogen production fermenter (HPF) and 9 d in the methane production fermenter (MPF) using heat pre-treatment. Acetic acid is a dominant volatile fatty acid of the soluble metabolites with values 70%–73% under all the tested conditions and increased values under heat pre-treatment and high HRT. Firmicutes and Euryarchaeota are the main bacteria species detected in HPF and MPF, respectively. The optimal total energy of 196.47 kJ/L/d and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of 90% were obtained by a complete anaerobic co-digestion process at a high substrate concentration of 105 g COD/L and low HRT of 4.5 h. This shows that the two-stage co-digestion process could increase the COD removal efficiency, hydrogen production rate, and net energy gains and produce high quality biogas and significantly reduce fermentation time.

Influence of substrate concentration and bicarbonate addition on the anaerobic digestion of an inulin-rich substrate as the ending stage in a dandelion biorefinery scheme

This study was focused on the suitability of dandelion plant as part of a biorefinery scheme in which anaerobic degradation (biomethanization) for biogas production is the ending process. Inulin as the main compound in the tuberous root was selected as substrate and tested at different concentrations (5, 10 and 15 g TS L−1). The presence of bicarbonate as a buffer on anaerobic digestion was assessed as well. Methane production curves were fitted with the modified Gompertz equation. Methane production yield (YCH4), specific maximum methane production rate (SRMAX) and the first-order hydrolysis constant (kH) were affected by the substrate concentration. Bicarbonate was found not to be determinant for the overall biomethanization process because no significant effect over the YCH4was achieved in the presence or absence of bicarbonate; between 0.19 to 0.23 m3 kg-1 VS added. However, kHand SRMAX were affected by the presence of this inorganic compound. Without the addition of bicarbonate, kHand SRMAX decreased as the TS increased. These results will be key for a dandelion biorefinery proof-of-concept under the proposed conditions.

Biochar triggers methanogenesis recovery of a severely acidified anaerobic digestion system via hydrogen-based syntrophic pathway inhibition

Rapid methanogenesis recovery of an acidified anaerobic digestion (AD) system is a challenging issue in engineering application, due to the unfavorably thermodynamics of volatile fatty acids (VFA) syntrophic oxidation process with hydrogen as electron transfer mediator. To breakthrough this bottleneck, in this study, we developed the strategy with biochar as an additive for rapid methanogenesis recovery of a severely acidified AD system is elucidated. First, with VFA as substrate, it was found that biochar addition shortened lag time and promoted maximum methane production rate, confirming the role of biochar to enhance VFA syntrophic oxidation. Moreover, the addition of biochar to the acidified sludge significantly decreased hydrogen partial pressure, which thermodynamically stimulated VFA oxidation by reducing Gibbs free energy. Microbial community analysis delivered that biochar addition largely altered the dominant microbes. The enrichment of electro-active Syntrophomonas and Methanosarcina suggested the role of biochar as potential redox-active mediator to stimulate potential direct interspecies electron transfer between syntrophic microorganisms, and inhibit hydrogen-based syntrophic pathway simultaneously. Further stable operation confirms that biochar is a promising additive for the rapid methanogenic recovery of acidified AD systems.

Process performance of anaerobic co-digestion of waste activated sludge and aquaculture sludge

The mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion (AcD) performances of waste activated sludge (WAS) and aquaculture sludge (AS) were studied. Mixtures of different compositions (0, 30, 50, 70 and 100 % of AS on the volume basis) were used as AcD substrates and tested via biochemical methane potential assay. The results showed that CH4 production increased with AS/WAS ratio increment, and AS alone used as the substrate showed the maximum CH4 yield, which was 8% higher than that achieved using WAS alone as the substrate. The CH4 yield values were well fitted with the modified Gompertz model. The maximum methane potential (P0) and maximum methane production rate (R0) increased from 66.8 mL CH4/g VSfed to 70.9 mL CH4/g VSfed and from 4.40 mL CH4/g VSfed·d to 5.59 mL CH4/g VSfed·d, respectively, as the AS/WAS ratio increased from 0% to 100 %. In addition, lower levels of free ammonia and non-biodegradable organic matter contributed to the CH4 production increasing with AS/WAS ratio increased.

Effects of foam nickel supplementation on anaerobic digestion: Direct interspecies electron transfer

Stimulating direct interspecies electron transfer with conductive materials is a promising strategy to overcome the limitation of electron transfer efficiency in syntrophic methanogenesis of industrial wastewater. This paper assessed the impact of conductive foam nickel (FN) supplementation on syntrophic methanogenesis and found that addition of 2.45 g/L FN in anaerobic digestion increased the maximum methane production rate by 27.4 % (on day 3) while decreasing the peak production time by 33 % as compared to the control with no FN. Cumulative methane production from day 2 to 6 was 14.5 % higher with addition of 2.45 g/L FN than in the control. Levels of FN in excess of 2.45 g/L did not show benefits. Cyclic voltammetry results indicated that the biofilm formed on the FN could generate electrons. The dominant bacterial genera in suspended sludge were Dechlorobacter and Rikenellaceae DMER64, whereas that in the FN biofilm was Clostridium sensu stricto 11. The dominant archaea Methanosaeta in the FN biofilm was enriched by 14.1 % as compared to the control.

Enhanced syntrophic metabolism of propionate and butyrate via nickel-containing activated carbon during anaerobic digestion

The accumulation of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) is commonly occur during anaerobic digestion, affecting methane production rate and system stability. Batch experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of nickel-containing granular activated carbon (GAC-Ni), an industrial waste, on the degradation of acetate (HAc), propionate (HPr) and butyrate (HBu), respectively. The results showed that the maximum methane production rate of the reactors fed with HPr and HBu were increased by 54.06% and 16.55%, respectively, with the supplementation of GAC-Ni. Correspondingly, the degradation rates of HPr and HBu were improved with GAC-Ni addition, which was 1.14–20.70 times and 1.01–2.16 times of the control, respectively. And the microbial analysis revealed that GAC-Ni facilitated the syntrophic relationship between Syntrophomonas and hydrogenotrophic methanogens (i.e. genera Methanolinea and Methanobacterium), leading to faster degradation of HPr and HBu. Additionally, the surface morphology analysis indicated that the presence of Ni in GAC-Ni could promote the formation of condense reticulate structures, which might be beneficial for linking the functional microbes together. This study suggested that GAC-Ni waste could mitigate the accumulation of VFAs in anaerobic digestion reactor by promoting the syntrophic metabolism between VFAs degradation bacteria and methanogens.

Long-term preserved and rapidly revived methanogenic cultures: Microbial dynamics and preservation mechanisms

Bioaugmentation with specialized inocula has been proven a feasible way to remediate under-performing anaerobic digestion (AD) processes. However, a major bottleneck for successful and cost-effective bioaugmentation is the lack of ready-to-use, specialized methanogenic cultures when required. The reason is the slow growth of the anaerobic consortia and the high cost of maintaining them active in the necessary amounts for successful bioaugmentation applications. This study offers an effective procedure where customized AD inocula could be preserved and used on-demand for remediation of ammonia inhibited AD reactors. Additionally, it introduces the biological and physicochemical mechanisms that render the long-term preservation of the AD inocula possible. Specifically, two different preservation carriers (i.e. agar gel and liquid basic anaerobic medium) were assessed at two different temperatures (i.e. 4 °C and 24 °C) using an ammonia tolerant methanogenic consortium. The results from methane production, lag-phase, maximum methane production rate and cell viability indicate that the consortium preserved for 168 days in agar gel at 24 °C performed best compared to the other tested preservation conditions. Meanwhile, 16S rRNA sequencing analysis indicated that Methanosarcina soligelidi and Methanoculleus palmolei shown a high revival rate and metabolic activity after long-term preservation. Thus, this successful long-term preservation method of ready-to-use AD consortia could render the successful bioaugmentation in full-scale biogas reactors economically possible in the near future.

Exploring the roles of zero-valent iron in two-stage food waste anaerobic digestion

This research investigated the roles of zero-valent iron (ZVI) in a two-stage food waste digestion process. ZVI was added separately to hydrolytic-acidogenic (HA) and methanogenic (MG) stages to understand its impacts on FW hydrolysis-acidification, methanogenesis and bioenergy recovery efficiency. Results showed that ZVI effectively enhanced the overall performance of digestion as compared with the controls without ZVI. Supplementing with ZVI could facilitate the HA process along with faster hydrogen generation. In addition, ZVI shortened the lag phase of MG stage by 42.43–57.23% and raised the maximum methane production rate and yield by 33.99–38.20% and 11–13%, respectively, compared with the controls. Supplementing ZVI to the HA stage could simultaneously raise the bioenergy recovery efficiency of the HA and MG stages by 71.92% and 96.96%, respectively. Further studies demonstrated that iron corrosion contributed little to hydrogen and methane production. The enrichment of syntrophic bacteria, Pseudomonas, and methanogens, and the enhancement of electron transfer among those microbes was supposed to be the main possible mechanism for the enhancement of methanogenesis with ZVI assisted.

Enhancement of syntrophic acetate oxidation pathway via single walled carbon nanotubes addition under high acetate concentration and thermophilic condition

The effect of single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) on methane production under high acetate concentration and thermophilic condition was evaluated. An isotope labeling experiment verified that >85% of methane was generated from syntrophic acetate oxidation (SAO) at 50, 100 and 150 mM acetate and almost 100% at 200 mM. SWCNT addition had little effect on the methanogenesis pathway, whereas it accelerated methane production via decreasing lag phase times and increasing maximum methane production rates. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) results revealed the electrical resistivity of sludge in groups of SWCNT was distinctly smaller than CK groups, indicating higher sludge conductivity was achieved. Further, the results of communities described that Coprothermobacter and Thermacetogenium played the most important role in SAO under all conditions. Meanwhile, the enriched Thermacetogenium and direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) pathway in SAO consortia contributed to the acceleration of methane production via SWCNT addition.

Methane production from the co-digestion of pig manure and corn stover with the addition of cucumber residue: Role of the total solids content and feedstock-to-inoculum ratio

This study investigated performance and stability of increasing total solids (TS) content (10–30%) and feedstock-to-inoculum (F/I) ratios (1, 2) on anaerobic co-digestion of agricultural wastes. The cumulative methane yields generally decreased with the increasing TS content except for the TS content of 30% at F/I ratio of 1 and TS content of 10% at F/I ratio of 2. This was consistent with the maximum methane production rate (Rmax) and rate of the hydrolysis (Kh) stage in reactors. The pH, VFAs and NH4+-N content were positively correlated with increasing TS contents and F/I ratios. Economic analysis results indicated the net present value generally increased with increasing TS contents and TS content of 30% at F/I ratio of 1 had the highest net present value (5.7 million US$) and internal rate of return (41.9%). This indicated solid-state anaerobic digestion was financially attractive under analyzed conditions.

Modeling pH and temperature effects on the anaerobic treatment of tequila vinasses

AbstractBACKGROUNDAn unstructured mathematical model is proposed to evaluate the effect of key variables on the anaerobic digestion of tequila vinasses and to determine the operating conditions that improve biogas production. Most of the models currently reported do not consider the simultaneous effects of pH and temperature on the process kinetics. Instead, they only recognize the specific operational conditions under which the experiments were conducted. Hence, this work presents a mathematical model that considers the effects of pH and temperature on methane production.RESULTSExperimental data were obtained from the anaerobic treatment of tequila vinasses conducted in a sequencing batch reactor, which was evaluated at two temperatures (32 and 38 °C) and two pH values (7 and 8) to validate the proposed model. Parameter estimation was performed using the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm yielding a simplified model with high determination coefficients (R2 &gt; 0.99). Moreover, kinetic parameters estimated were consistent physically and statistically.CONCLUSIONSNumerical simulations provide the operating conditions under which methane production can be favored. Therefore, the proposed model might be advantageous in predicting the maximum methane production rate and the maximum organic loading rate that could be used without risking the stability of an anaerobic digestion process. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry

The effect of PBS on methane production in combined MEC-AD system fed with alkaline pretreated sewage sludge

Batch experiments were conducted to study bioelectrochemical enhancement of the anaerobic digestion (AD) of alkaline-pretreated sewage sludge in microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) in the presence or absence of phosphate buffer solution (PBS). Experimental results showed that the maximum methane production rate was increased from 0.18 mL-CH4/(mLreactor·d) (control) to 0.2 mL-CH4/(mLreactor·d) in the presence of PBS and cumulative methane production was 1.4-fold higher than that of control. The initial concentrations of SCOD, protein, polysaccharide and VFAs in the presence of PBS were slightly higher than those of control, suggesting that PBS might facilitate the release of organics into mixed liquor. The microbial community analysis results showed that the microbial community with PBS had higher diversity and Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were the two most abundant phyla in the communities. Moreover, the PBS addition could enhance the growth of aceticlastic methanogens (Methanosaeta) and inhibit a portion of hydrogenotrophic methanogens (Methanobacterium), possibly due to the different cell wall composition.

Anaerobic co-digestion of tannery solid waste: optimum leather fleshings waste loading

In this study, loading of optimum leather fleshings was investigated with four identical batch reactors with different fleshings and treatment sludge ratios (0:1, 0.25:1, 0.35:1, 0.50:1) to contribute to the state of art of the biogas production from tannery solid wastes. Results showed that lipids-containing leather fleshings boosted the methane production potential. However, H2S inhibition and volatile fatty acids accumulation were the main concern in the anaerobic digestion of these wastes. The modified Gompertz model was applied to the batch tests data to determine the kinetic constants of anaerobic digestion of tannery solid wastes. It was calculated with the model outputs that the ultimate methane production potential and maximum methane production rate in reactors having mixing ratio of 0.35:1 and 0.5:1 (dry basis) were highly similar. 0.35 was found to be an optimum leather fleshing and treatment sludge ratio with a 54% more methane production potential than that of control reactor in this study.