Baoning Zhu

Performances of anaerobic co-digestion of fruit & vegetable waste (FVW) and food waste (FW): Single-phase vs. two-phase

The co-digestion of fruit & vegetable waste (FVW) and food waste (FW) was performed at various organic loading ratios (OLRs) in single-phase and two-phase system, respectively. The results showed that the ethanol-type fermentation dominated in both digestion processes when OLR was at low levels (<2.0 g(VS) L(-1) d(-1)). The propionic acid was rapidly accumulated as OLR was increased to higher levels (>2.0 g(VS) L(-1) d(-1)), which could cause unstable anaerobic digestion. Single-phase digestion was better than two-phase digestion in term of 4.1% increase in CH4 production at lower OLRs (<2.0 g(VS) L(-1) d(-1)). However, at higher level of OLR (≥2.0 g(VS) L(-1) d(-1)), two-phase digestion achieved higher CH4 production of 0.351-0.455 L(g VS)(-1) d(-1), which were 7.0-15.8% more than that of single-phase. Additionally, two-phase digestion presented more stable operation, and higher OLR treatment capacity. Furthermore, comparison of these two systems with bioenergy recovery revealed that two-phase system overall presented higher bioenergy yield than single-phase.

Characteristics and biogas production potential of municipal solid wastes pretreated with a rotary drum reactor.

This study was conducted to determine the characteristics and biogas production potential of organic materials separated from municipal solid wastes using a rotary drum reactor (RDR) process. Four different types of wastes were first pretreated with a commercial RDR system at different retention times (1, 2 and 3 d) and the organic fractions were tested with batch anaerobic digesters with 2.6 g VS L(-1) initial loading. The four types of waste were: municipal solid waste (MSW), a mixture of MSW and paper waste, a mixture of MSW and biosolids, and a mixture of paper and biosolids. After 20 d of thermophilic digestion (50+/-1 degrees C), it was found that the biogas yields of the above materials were in the range of 457-557 mL g VS(-1) and the biogas contained 57.3-60.6% methane. The total solid and volatile solid reductions ranged from 50.2% to 65.0% and 51.8% to 66.8%, respectively. For each material, the change of retention time in the RDR from 1 to 3d did not show significant (alpha=0.05) influence on the biogas yields of the recovered organic materials. Further studies are needed to determine the minimum retention time requirements in the RDR system to achieve effective separation of organic from inorganic materials and produce suitable feedstock for anaerobic digesters.

Anaerobic co-digestion of kitchen waste and fruit/vegetable waste: Lab-scale and pilot-scale studies

The anaerobic digestion performances of kitchen waste (KW) and fruit/vegetable waste (FVW) were investigated for establishing engineering digestion system. The study was conducted from lab-scale to pilot-scale, including batch, single-phase and two-phase experiments. The lab-scale experimental results showed that the ratio of FVW to KW at 5:8 presented higher methane productivity (0.725 L CH4/g VS), and thereby was recommended. Two-phase digestion appeared to have higher treatment capacity and better buffer ability for high organic loading rate (OLR) (up to 5.0 g(VS) L(-1) d(-1)), compared with the low OLR of 3.5 g(VS) L(-1) d(-1) for single-phase system. For two-phase digestion, the pilot-scale system showed similar performances to those of lab-scale one, except slightly lower maximum OLR of 4.5 g(VS) L(-1) d(-1) was allowed. The pilot-scale system proved to be profitable with a net profit of 10.173

Biogas production from municipal solid wastes using an integrated rotary drum and anaerobic-phased solids digester system.

/ton as higher OLR (⩾ 3.0 g(VS) L(-1) d(-1)) was used.

Minimizing asynchronism to improve the performances of anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and corn stover

This research was conducted to develop an integrated rotary drum reactor (RDR)-anaerobic-phased solids (APS) digester system for the treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) to produce biogas energy and achieve waste reduction. A commercial RDR facility was used to provide a 3-d pretreatment and sufficient separation of the organics from MSW and then the organics were digested in a laboratory APS-digester system for biogas production. The organics generated from the RDR contained 50% total solids (TS) and 36% volatile solids (VS) on wet basis. The APS-digester was started at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 3.1 gVS L(-1) d(-1) and operated at three higher OLRs of 4.6, 7.7 and 9.2 gVS L(-1) d(-1). At the OLR of 9.2 gVS L(-1) d(-1) the system biogas production rate was 3.5 L L(-1) d(-1) and the biogas and methane yields were 0.38 and 0.19 L gVS(-1), respectively. Anaerobic digestion resulted in 38% TS reduction and 53% VS reduction in the organic solids. It was found that the total VFA concentration reached a peak value of 15,000 mg L(-1) as acetic acid in the first 3d of batch digestion and later decreased to about 500 mg L(-1). The APS-digester system remained stable at each OLRs for over 100d with the pH in the hydrolysis reactors in the range of 7.3-7.8 and the pH in the biogasification reactor in 7.9-8.1. The residual solids after the digestion had a high heating value of 14.7 kJ gTS(-1).

Promoting anaerobic biogasification of corn stover through biological pretreatment by liquid fraction of digestate (LFD).

To investigate the existence of the asynchronism during the anaerobic co-digestion of different substrates, two typical substrates of food waste and corn stover were anaerobically digested with altering organic loadings (OL). The results indicated that the biodegradability of food waste and corn stover was calculated to be 81.5% and 55.1%, respectively, which was main reason causing the asynchronism in the co-digestion. The asynchronism was minimized by NaOH-pretreatment for corn stover, which could improve the biodegradability by 36.6%. The co-digestion with pretreatment could increase the biomethane yield by 12.2%, 3.2% and 0.6% comparing with the co-digestion without pretreatment at C/N ratios of 20, 25 and 30 at OL of 35 g-VS/L, respectively. The results indicated that the digestibility synchronism of food waste and corn stover was improved through enhancing the accessibility and digestibility of corn stover. The biomethane production could be increased by minimizing the asynchronism of two substrates in co-digestion.

Effect of lipase addition on hydrolysis and biomethane production of Chinese food waste.

A new biological pretreatment method by using liquid fraction of digestate (LFD) was advanced for promoting anaerobic biogasification efficiency of corn stover. 17.6% TS content and ambient temperature was appropriate for pretreatment. The results showed that C/N ratio decreased to about 30, while total lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose (LCH) contents were reduced by 8.1-19.4% after pretreatment. 3-days pretreatment was considered to be optimal, resulting in 70.4% more biogas production, 66.3% more biomethane yield and 41.7% shorter technical digestion time compared with the untreated stover. The reductions on VS, cellulose, and hemicellulose were increased by 22.1-35.9%, 22.3-35.4%, and 19.8-27.2% for LFD-treated stovers. The promoted anaerobic biogasification efficiency was mainly attributed to the improved biodegradability due to the pre-decomposition role of the bacteria in LFD. The method proved to be an efficient and low cost approach for producing bioenergy from corn stover, meanwhile, reducing LFD discharge and minimizing its potential pollution.

Evaluating biomethane production from anaerobic mono- and co-digestion of food waste and floatable oil (FO) skimmed from food waste.

The lipase obtained from Aspergillums niger was applied to promote the hydrolysis of food waste for achieving high biomethane production. Two strategies of lipase additions were investigated. One (Group A) was to pre-treat food waste to pre-decompose lipid to fatty acids before anaerobic digestion, and another one (Group B) was to add lipase to anaerobic digester directly to degrade lipid inside digester. The lipase was used at the concentrations of 0.1%, 0.5%, and 1.0% (w/v). The results showed that Group A achieved higher biomethane production, TS and VS reductions than those of Group B. At 0.5% lipase concentration, Group A obtained experimental biomethane yield of 500.1 mL/g VS(added), 4.97-26.50% higher than that of Group B. The maximum Bd of 73.8% was also achieved in Group A. Therefore, lipase pre-treatment strategy is recommended. This might provide one of alternatives for efficient biomethane production from food waste and mitigating environmental impact associated.

Improving Biomethane Production and Mass Bioconversion of Corn Stover Anaerobic Digestion by Adding NaOH Pretreatment and Trace Elements

Batch anaerobic digestion was employed to investigate the performance of the floatable oil (FO) skimmed from food waste (FW) and the effect of different FO concentrations (5, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50g/L) on biomethane production and system stability. FO and FO+FW were mono-digested and co-digested. The results showed that FO and FO+FW could be well anaerobically converted to biomethane in appropriate loads. For the mono-digestions of FO, the biomethane yield, TS and VS reduction achieved 607.7-846.9mL/g, 69.7-89% and 84.5-92.8%, respectively, when FO concentration was 5-40g/L. But the mono-digestion appeared instability when FO concentration was 50g/L. For the co-digestions of FW+FO, TS and VS reductions reached 70.7-86.1% and 87.5-91.4%, respectively, when FO concentration was 5-30g/L. However, the inhibition occurred when FO concentrations increased to 40-50g/L. The maximal FO loads of 40g/L and 30g/L were hence suggested for efficient mono-digestions and co-digestions of FO and FO+FW.

Reducing agitation energy-consumption by improving rheological properties of corn stover substrate in anaerobic digestion

This research applied sodium hydroxide (NaOH) pretreatment and trace elements to improve biomethane production when using corn stover for anaerobic digestion. Full-factor experimental tests identified the best combination of trace elements with the NaOH pretreatment, indicating that the best combination was with 1.0, 0.4, and 0.4 mg·L−1·d−1 of elements Fe, Co, and Ni, respectively. The cumulative biomethane production adding NaOH pretreatment and trace elements was 11,367 mL; total solid bioconversion rate was 55.7%, which was 41.8%–62.2% higher than with NaOH-pretreatment alone and 22.2%–56.3% higher than with untreated corn stover. The best combination was obtained 5–9 days shorter than T90 and maintained good system operation stability. Only a fraction of the trace elements in the best combination was present in the resulting solution; more than 85% of the total amounts added were transferred into the solid fraction. Adding 0.897 g of Fe, 0.389 g of Co, and 0.349 g of Ni satisfied anaerobic digestion needs and enhanced biological activity at the beginning of the operation. The results showed that NaOH pretreatment and adding trace elements improve corn stover biodegradability and enhance biomethane production.