Thomas A. Kotsopoulos

Anaerobic co-digestion of cattle manure and alternative crops for the substitution of maize in South Europe.

In this study alternative agricultural substrates are investigated as potential substitutes of maize for biogas production in the region of South Europe. Crop silages of cardoon, maize, milk thistle and sorghum as well as bedding straw from cattle farm were examined in the anaerobic co-digestion procedure with cattle manure. Milk thistle crop was further investigated in a naturally sun dried form and the effect of mechanical, thermal and thermo-chemical pretreatments on fiber composition and methane yield was evaluated. Pretreatment with NaOH increase the solubilization by 77.7%. The co-digestion experiment was carried out in 28 batch reactors at 37°C. The highest methane yields of 308, 271 and 267LCH4kg(-1) of volatile solids were obtained by co-digestion of cattle manure with cardoon silage, thermo-chemical pretreated milk thistle stalks with NaOH and maize silage, respectively. Furthermore, co-digestion of bedding straw and cattle manure had similar methane yield with maize silage.

Inoculum and zeolite synergistic effect on anaerobic digestion of poultry manure

Poultry manure is an ammonia-rich substrate due to its high content of proteins and amino acids. Ammonia is the major inhibitor of anaerobic digestion (AD) process, affecting biogas production and causing great economic losses to the biogas plants. In this study, the effect of different natural zeolite dosages on the mesophilic AD of poultry manure inoculated with a non-acclimatized to ammonia inoculum (dairy manure) was investigated. Additionally, a comparative analysis was performed between the data extracted from this study and the results of a previous study, which has been conducted under the same experimental conditions but with the use of ammonia acclimatized inoculum (swine manure). At 5 and 10 g zeolite L−1, the methane yield of poultry manure was 43.4% and 80.3% higher compared with the experimental set without zeolite addition. However, the ammonia non-acclimatized inoculum was not efficient in digesting poultry manure even in the presence of 10 g zeolite L−1, due to low methane production (only 39%) compared with the maximum theoretical yield. Finally, ammonia acclimatized inoculum and zeolite have demonstrated a possible ‘synergistic effect’, which led to a more efficient AD of poultry manure. The results of this study could potentially been used by the biogas plant operators to efficiently digest poultry manure.

Zeolite and swine inoculum effect on poultry manure biomethanation.

Abstract Poultry manure is an ammonia-rich substrate that inhibits methanogenesis, causing severe problems to the anaerobic digestion process. In this study, the effect of different natural zeolite concentrations on the mesophilic anaerobic digestion of poultry waste inoculated with well-digested swine manure was investigated. A significant increase in methane production was observed in treatments where zeolite was added, compared to the treatment without zeolite.Methane production in the treatment with 10 g dm-3 of natural zeolite was found to be 109.75% higher compared to the treatment without zeolite addition. The results appear to be influenced by the addition of zeolite, which reduces ammonia toxicity in anaerobic digestion and by the ammonia-tolerant swine inoculum.