Deokjin Jahng

Anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and piggery wastewater: focusing on the role of trace elements.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and piggery wastewater, and to identify the key factors governing the co-digestion performance. The analytical results indicated that the food waste contained higher energy potential and lower concentrations of trace elements than the piggery wastewater. Anaerobic co-digestion showed a significantly improved biogas productivity and process stability. The results of co-digestion of the food waste with the different fractions of the piggery wastewater suggested that trace element might be the reason for enhancing the co-digestion performance. By supplementing the trace elements, a long-term anaerobic digestion of the food waste only resulted in a high methane yield of 0.396 m(3)/kg VS(added) and 75.6% of VS destruction with no significant volatile fatty acid accumulation. These results suggested that the typical Korean food waste was deficient with some trace elements required for anaerobic digestion.

Long-term anaerobic digestion of food waste stabilized by trace elements

The purpose of this study was to examine if long-term anaerobic digestion of food waste in a semi-continuous single-stage reactor could be stabilized by supplementing trace elements. Contrary to the failure of anaerobic digestion of food waste alone, stable anaerobic digestion of food waste was achieved for 368 days by supplementing trace elements. Under the conditions of OLR (organic loading rates) of 2.19-6.64 g VS (volatile solid)/L day and 20-30 days of HRT (hydraulic retention time), a high methane yield (352-450 mL CH(4)/g VS(added)) was obtained, and no significant accumulation of volatile fatty acids was observed. The subsequent investigation on effects of individual trace elements (Co, Fe, Mo and Ni) showed that iron was essential for maintaining stable methane production. These results proved that the food waste used in this study was deficient in trace elements.

Ammonia stripping for enhanced biomethanization of piggery wastewater.

In this study, the effects of ammonia removal by air stripping as a pretreatment on the anaerobic digestion of piggery wastewater were investigated. Ammonia stripping results indicated that ammonia removal was strongly dependent on pH and aeration rate, and the ammonia removal rate followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics. A significant enhancement of biomethanization was observed for wastewaters of which ammonia was air-stripped at pH 9.5 and pH 10.0. The methane productivity increased from 0.23 ± 0.08 L CH(4)/Ld of the control (raw piggery wastewater) to 0.75 ± 0.11 L CH(4)/Ld (ammonia-stripped at pH 9.5) and 0.57 ± 0.04 L CH(4)/Ld (ammonia-stripped at pH 10.0). However, the improvement of methane production from the piggery wastewater pretreated at pH 11.0 was negligible compared to the control, which was thought to be due to the high concentration of sodium ions supplied from sodium hydroxide for pH adjustment. From these results, it was concluded that ammonia removal through air stripping at the alkaline pH could be a viable option for preventing the failure of anaerobic digestion of the raw piggery wastewater. Additionally, it was also found that a high concentration of sodium ion originated from sodium hydroxide for pH adjustment inhibited methane production.

Enhanced anaerobic digestion of piggery wastewater by ammonia stripping: Effects of alkali types

Air stripping at alkaline pH was carried out to remove ammonia from the piggery wastewater, and its effects on subsequent anaerobic digestion were investigated in semi-continuous experiments. In ammonia stripping process, three alkalis (NaOH, KOH and CaO) were used for pH adjustment. When using NaOH and KOH, the methane production rate increased more than two folds as compared to the control (no ammonia stripped), but cation toxicity exerted by sodium and potassium ions was observed. When using lime, on the contrary, it was found that volumetric methane production rates (1040-1130 mL CH(4)/L day) and yields (262.3-258.9 mL CH(4)/g of COD(added)) were significantly higher than others. In addition, the organic removal efficiencies (54.2-59.5% of volatile solid, 59.6-64.0% of total COD, 72.1-81.9% of soluble COD and 89.3-98.9% of volatile fatty acid) were also high. Batch toxicity test results confirmed that cations of Na(+), K(+) were strong methanogenic inhibitors as compared to Ca(2+). From these observations, it was concluded that ammonia stripping at alkaline pH is important for anaerobic digestion of piggery wastewater and the alkali types should be chosen cautiously to avoid cation toxicity.

Life cycle analyses of CO2, energy, and cost for four different routes of microalgal bioenergy conversion.

With a target production of 1000 ton of dry algae/yr, lipid content of 30 wt.%, and productivity of 30 g/m(2)-d in a 340-day annual operation, four common scenarios of microalgae bioenergy routes were assessed in terms of cost, energy, and CO2 inputs and outputs. Scenario 1 (biodiesel production), Scenario 2 (Scenario 1 with integrated anaerobic digestion system), Scenario 3 (biogas production), and Scenario 4 (supercritical gasification) were evaluated. Scenario 4 outperformed other scenarios in terms of net energy production (1282.42 kWh/ton algae) and CO2 removal (1.32 ton CO2/ton algae) while Scenario 2 surpassed the other three scenarios in terms of net cost. Scenario 1 produced the lowest energy while Scenario 3 was the most expensive bioenergy system. This study evaluated critical parameters that could direct the proper design of the microalgae bioenergy system with an efficient energy production, CO2 removal, and economic feasibility.

Importance of Initial Moisture Content and Bulking Agent for Biodrying Sewage Sludge

For the final disposal and reutilization of organic wastes, reduction of moisture content (MC) is essential because water contained in the organic waste generates leachate, lowers energy content, and indirectly causes odor problems. MC also directly determines the drying cost. In this study, MC of sewage sludge was effectively decreased by applying a biodrying process in which the microbial metabolic heat evaporated the water. By controlling the initial MC through air drying and its subsequent biodrying, it was found that 50–70 wt% was the optimal initial MC range for the sludge biodrying process. In this range, 33.7–47.1% of the initial water was removed by consuming 12.3–21.2% of the volatile solids (VS) initially contained in the sludge during 10 days of biodrying. When treating the same amount of raw sludge, air-dried and biodried sludge showed better performance as bulking agents than rubber and sawdust. About 55.1% of the initial water was removed from the mixture with air-dried sludge by consuming 23.8% of the initial VS and 38.3% of the initial water was lost from the sludge mixture with biodried sludge by consuming 14.0% of the initial VS during 12.1 days of biodrying. When rubber and sawdust were used as the bulking agents, only 18.2 and 16.5% of the initial water was removed, respectively. It was thought that the easily biodegradable VS contained in the air-dried sludge produced more heat and consequently removed more water. Although air-dried sludge showed better performance than biodried sludge, the use of biodried sludge as a bulking agent was thought to be more practical than air-dried sludge because biodried sludge can be used as bulking agent for the next round of biodrying in a repeated operation of the biodrying reactor. After biodrying, the lower heating value of the biodried sludge (51.5 wt% of MC) was 14.644 MJ kg−1, which was much higher than that of the original wet sludge.

Optimization of trichloroethylene degradation using soluble methane monooxygenase of Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b expressed in recombinant bacteria

By complementing cell‐free extracts of Pseudomonas putida F1/pSMMO20 with purified soluble methane monooxygenase (sMMO) components of Methylosinus trichosporium OB3b, the low cloned‐gene sMMO activity in the recombinant strain was found to be due to incomplete activity of the hydroxylase component. To address this incomplete activity, additional sMMO‐expressing strains were formed by transferring mmo‐containing pSMMO20 and pSMMO50 into various bacterial species including pseudomonads and α‐2 subdivision strains such as methanotrophs, methylotrophs, Agrobacterium tumefaciens A114, and Rhizobium meliloti 102F34 (11 new strains screened); sMMO activity was detected in the last two strains. To increase plasmid segregational stability, the hok/sok locus originally from Escherichia coli plasmid R1 was inserted downstream of the mmo locus of pSMMO20 (resulting in pSMMO40) and found to enhance plasmid stability in P. putida F1 and R. meliloti 102F34 (first report of hok/sok in Rhizobium). To further increase sMMO activity, a modified Whittenbury minimal medium was selected from various minimal and complex media based on trichloroethylene (TCE) degradation and growth rates and was improved by removing the sMMO‐inhibiting metal ions [Cu(II), Ni(II), and Zn(II)] and chloramphenicol from the medium and by supplementing with an iron source (3.6 μM of ferrous ammonium sulfate). Using chemostat‐grown P. putida F1/pSMMO40, it was found that sMMO activity was higher for cells grown at higher dilution rates. These optimization efforts resulted in a twofold increase in the extent of TCE degradation and more consistent sMMO activity.

Protein recovery from excess sludge for its use as animal feed

In this study, the possibility of using proteins recovered from excess sludge as animal feed was investigated. The proteins were recovered through the processes of sludge disintegration (alkali treatment followed by ultra-sonication), precipitation and drying of the soluble proteins. The compositions and the toxicants of the recovered proteins were analyzed, and the toxicity was assessed by Sprague-Dawley (SD) rat experiments. The results showed that the nutrient compositions were comparable with the commercial protein feeds. Heavy metals were found to be removed after the protein recovery process, and aflatoxin B1, ochratoxin A and Salmonella D groups were not detected. The rat toxicity tests showed that there were no effects on mortality, the incidence of clinical signs, body weight changes, and necropsy findings. The minimum lethal dose (MLD) was higher than 2000 mg/kg. Based on these results, the use of the crude protein recovered from excess sludge as animal feed appears to be technically feasible.

Design considerations for groundwater remediation using reduced metals

Use of reduced metals has attracted much attention since it possesses a great potential for eliminating reducible contaminants in groundwater such as heavy metals and chlorinated compounds. However, products of metal-mediated reactions for many chlorinated hydrocarbons have not clearly been identified. In addition, consumption of the metals, generation and release of metal ions, formation of insoluble metal oxides and hydroxides on the clean metal surface, and rise of pH inevitably accompany the reactions. Due to these properties of metal-mediated reactions, the reaction rate could decrease as the reaction proceeds, and effluent quality could decay. It was shown in this study using chlorine mass balance and GC analysis that chloroform is formed from carbon tetrachloride by reduced iron. It is also well-known that nitrate is reduced mostly to ammonia by metals, which indicates that the metal process is inappropriate for denitrification of nitrate-contaminated aquifers. These results indicate that groundwater remediation using metal process requires careful consideration for the safety of reaction products. It was also shown that mixing rate strongly affects reaction rate since metal-mediated reaction occurs on the surface of metals. In addition, reaction rate was decreased due to metal hydroxide deposition on the surface of metal granules that was seen by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. Generation of iron ions (consumption of reduced iron) released from reduction of zero-valent iron was also shown by using an ion chromatograph (IC). In this study, some methods were suggested to solve the above-mentioned problems. Acid washing appeared effective for removing corrosion products on the surface of metal granules, by which a reduction rate could be maintained high for an extended time of reaction. Use of iron sulfide decreased an extent of pH rise during metal-mediated reaction; thereby precipitation of insoluble metal (hydr)oxides is expectedly decreased. It was also shown that inexpensive iron scrap instead of fine metal powders can be used for metal processes.

A comparative study on the alternating mesophilic and thermophilic two-stage anaerobic digestion of food waste

An alternating mesophilic and thermophilic two stage anaerobic digestion (AD) process was conducted. The temperature of the acidogenic (A) and methanogenic (M) reactors was controlled as follows: System 1 (S1) mesophilic A-mesophilic M; (S2) mesophilic A-thermophilic M; and (S3) thermophilic A-mesophilic M. Initially, the AD reactor was acclimatized and inoculated with digester sludge. Food waste was added with the soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) concentrations of 41.4-47.0 g/L and volatile fatty acids of 2.0-3.2 g/L. Based on the results, the highest total chemical oxygen demand removal (86.6%) was recorded in S2 while S3 exhibited the highest SCOD removal (96.6%). Comparing S1 with S2, total solids removal increased by 0.5%; S3 on the other hand decreased by 0.1 % as compared to S1. However, volatile solids (VS) removal in S1, S2, and S3 was 78.5%, 81.7%, and 79.2%, respectively. S2 also exhibited the highest CH4 content, yield, and production rate of 70.7%, 0.44 L CH4/g VSadded, and 1.23 L CH4/(L·day), respectively. Bacterial community structure revealed that the richness, diversity, evenness, and dominance of S2 were high except for the archaeal community. The terminal restriction fragments dendrogram also revealed that the microbial community of the acidogenic and methanogenic reactors in S2 was distinct. Therefore, S2 was the best among the systems for the operation of two-stage AD of food waste in terms of CH4 production, nutrient removal, and microbial community structure.