Yasunori Baba

Anaerobic digestion of crude glycerol from biodiesel manufacturing using a large-scale pilot plant: Methane production and application of digested sludge as fertilizer

This report is the first to consider methane production energy balance from crude glycerol at a practical rather than a laboratory scale. Crude glycerol was added to the plant progressively at between 5 and 75 L glycerol/30 m(3)-day for 1.5 years, and the energy balance was positive at a loading rate of 30 L glycerol/30 m(3)-day (1 ml/L-day). At this loading rate over one year, an energy output equivalent to 106% of the energy input was achieved. The surplus energy was equivalent to transport for 1200 km, so the proper feedstock-transportation distance was within a 12.5-km radius of the biogas plant. In addition, the digested sludge contained fertilizer components (T-N: 0.11%, P2O5: 0.036%, K2O: 0.19%) that increased grass yield by 1.2 times when applied to grass fields. Thus, crude glycerol is an attractive bioresource that can be used as both a feedstock for methane production and a liquid fertilizer.

Improvement of methane production from waste paper by pretreatment with rumen fluid

Cellulose hydrolysis is the rate-limiting step in anaerobic digestion. In the present study, waste paper was used as a model of cellulosic biomass and was pretreated with rumen fluid prior to methane production. To achieve a high methane yield, the reaction time of the pretreatment was examined. Waste paper was soaked with rumen fluid for 6 and 24h at 37 °C. Various volatile fatty acids, especially acetate, were produced by the pretreatment. Semicontinuous methane production was carried out over a 20-day period. The best daily methane yield was obtained by the 6-h pretreatment. The amount was 2.6 times higher than that of untreated paper, which resulted in 73.4% of the theoretical methane yield. During methane production, the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin degradabilities were improved by the pretreatment. Pretreatment by rumen fluid is therefore a powerful method to accelerate the methane yield from a cellulosic biomass.

Enhancing methane production during the anaerobic digestion of crude glycerol using Japanese cedar charcoal.

The use of Japanese cedar charcoal as a support material for microbial attachment could enhance methane production during anaerobic digestion of crude glycerol and wastewater sludge. Methane yield from a charcoal-containing reactor was approximately 1.6 times higher than that from a reactor without charcoal, and methane production was stable over 50 days when the loading rate was 2.17 g chemical oxygen demand (COD) L(-1) d(-1). Examination of microbial communities on the charcoal revealed the presence of Uncultured Desulfovibrio sp. clone V29 and Pelobacter seleniigenes, known as 1,3-propandiol degraders. Hydrogenotrophic methanogens were also detected in the archaeal community on the charcoal. Methanosaeta, Methanoregula, and Methanocellus were present in the charcoal-containing reactor. The concentration of propionate in the charcoal-containing reactor was also lower than that in the control reactor. These results suggest that propionate degradation was enhanced by the consumption of hydrogen by hydrogenotrophic methanogens on the charcoal.