Optimized operational parameters of anaerobic cellulosic-wastewater treatment for bioenergy recovery and effluent quality improvements (original) (raw)

The hydrolysis and biogas production of complex cellulosic substrates using three anaerobic biomass sources

Water Science & Technology, 2012

In this study, the ability of various sludges to digest a diverse range of cellulose and cellulose-derived substrates was assessed at different temperatures to elucidate the factors affecting hydrolysis. For this purpose, the biogas production was monitored and the specific biogas activity (SBA) of the sludges was employed to compare the performance of three anaerobic sludges on the degradation of a variety of complex cellulose sources, across a range of temperatures. The sludge with the highest performance on complex substrates was derived from a full-scale bioreactor treating sewage at 37 °C. Hydrolysis was the rate-limiting step during the degradation of complex substrates. No activity was recorded for the synthetic cellulose compound carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) using any of the sludges tested. Increased temperature led to an increase in hydrolysis rates and thus SBA values. The non-granular nature of the mesophilic sludge played a positive role in the hydrolysis of solid substr...

Biodegradation study of cellulose bearing synthetic wastewater in activated sludge system

2019

Due to the inert nature of cellulose, decomposition of cellulose present in food processing industry wastewater and digestate generating from organic solid waste treatment units is a key aspect in abetting global industrial pollution. The present study describes the performance of an aerobic bioreactor treating cellulose bearing synthetic wastewater. Complete acclimation with cellulose bearing synthetic wastewater was achieved within 10–12 weeks of initiating the acclimation batch runs. Maximum removal of the introduced chemical oxygen demand (COD) was recorded to be 70.4% mid-way through the acclimation phase. An average COD removal percentage in between 64% and 67% was noticed at the end of the acclimation phase. Inhibition of the bioreactor was noticed when the percentage of cellulose in the synthetic wastewater was increased above 70%. This resulted in sharp fall in system pH along with pronounced lowering of MLSS and percentage COD removal. Stability in the reactor performance ...

Synergetic Effect of Temperature and Partial Digestion of Cellulose on Conventional Biogas Production Rate

International Journal of Renewable Energy Research, 2013

In India and several other developing countries, small towns and village are using biogas for fulfillment of their daily household burning and electricity production. In biogas plant cattle dung is a key ingredient, along with other organic feedstocks. Cellulose containing feedstocks are one of the most commonly used and highly accepted substrate for methanogenesis. Degradation of cellulose under anaerobic conditions is a very slow process and results into lower production rate of gas. Therefore, an attempt was made to increase the rate of biogas production by providing partially digested cellulose rich feedstock to the fermentor vessel. Digestion was carried out by extracellular enzymes produced by thermophiles. The vessels were incubated at different temperatures to determine the effects of temperature on rate of methanogenesis. As a result of the study, it was found that fermentor vessels fed with partially digested cellulose and thermophiles have great potential for production of significantly higher quantity of biogas at 55 O C in half the incubation time as required by conventional method. Rate of gas production under such conditions was found more than double in many cases. Not only this, a direct relationship between the rate of cellulose degradation and production of biogas was also observed.

Designing Economical Production of Microbial Cellulose from Waste Using Modified Bioreactor

Microbial cellulose produced by Acetobacter xylinum is an alternative source for plant cellulose in industrial use. Production of microbial cellulose is receiving great attention since they can be applied in many fields. This research is carried out to study the production of microbial cellulose using Rotary Discs Reactor (RDR) by Acetobacter xylinum bacteria in pineapple waste medium. RDR is a new method developed to enhance the production of microbial cellulose in industrial field because of few advantages: it allows the oxygen enrich air to be supplied continuously, homogenized culture in the medium by rotating discs and less hassle to scale up. This research involved few experimental works including fermentation process, comparison of the production yield from static culture and RDR using similar medium, and glucose analysis. The fermentation process was carried out at room temperature, pH 5.0, rotary speed at 7 rpm and 4 days of fermentation. The variable parameter in this rese...

Enhancement of solubilization rate of cellulose in anaerobic digestion and its drawbacks

Process Biochemistry, 2011

Hydrolysis is widely acknowledged as the rate-limiting step in anaerobic digestion of solid cellulose to biogas (methane), and pretreatment is generally considered to facilitate the process. However, few studies have investigated how such pretreatment may affect the rest of this complex process. The present study compared the solubilization rate in anaerobic digestion of cotton linter (high crystalline cellulose), with that of regenerated cellulose (amorphous cellulose), using pretreatment with NMMO. Batch digestions were performed, with the initial cellulose concentrations ranging between 5 and 40 g/l, and during 30 days of incubation, biogas and VFAs production as well as pH and COD changes were measured. The lag time before digestion started was longer for the high crystalline cellulose than for the amorphous one. The maximum solubilization rates of treated cellulose were 842 and 517 mg sCOD/g cCOD/day at the initial cellulose concentration of 5 and 30 g/l, respectively, while the solubilization rate of untreated cellulose never exceeded 417 mg sCOD/g cCOD/day. The difference between the two cellulose types was a direct result of the high rate of hydrolysis inhibiting the acetogenesis/methanogenesis microorganisms, a drawback to the rest of the process.

Effect of Inoculum to Substrate Ratio on the Methane Potential of Microcrystalline Cellulose Production Wastewater

BioResources, 2014

The methane potential and influence of the inoculum to substrate ratio of wastewater originating from the production of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) were studied. Laboratory experiments were carried out in a continuously stirred batch multi-reactor at mesophilic temperature (37 °C). Inoculum to substrate ratios (ISRs) of 2.0, 1.0, 0.8, and 0.5 based on volatile solids (VS) were evaluated. The results demonstrate the suitability of MCC wastewater at ISRs of 2.0, 1.0, and 0.8 with ultimate methane potentials of 333, 297, and 325 mL CH4 per gram of volatile solids added, respectively, which correspond to anaerobic degradabilities of 91.4, 81.7, and 89.3%, respectively, compared to the theoretical potential. The inoculum to substrate ratio of 2.0 provided a faster methane production rate and a kinetic constant of 0.24 d -1 , reaching its ultimate yield at day 8 of incubation. The lowest ISR of 0.5 showed the occurrence of process inhibition due to accumulation of acids. Energy estimation suggests that considering the volume and VS of wastewater produced in a MCC mill, a total energy amount of 44,105 GJ/year can be produced, which can be used to replace 29.4% of the natural gas demand.

Recent Developments in Biogas Production from Pulp and Paper Industry Wastewaters

Increase in population and rapid developments in technology have enhanced production capacity in pulp and paper industry and have resulted in formation of huge amount of wastewaters, as high as 6-15 x 10 4 L per ton of paper produced. Depending on the pulping process, wastewaters can have a wide range of various pollutants characterized by biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), suspended solids (SS), toxicity, and dark color. Untreated wastewaters from pulp and paper can be potentially very polluting especially for high COD concentrations which can be reach at 13000 mg/L. Thus a reliable treatment process is needed to reduce any possible impacts of wastewaters on the receiving media. To overcome this problem an environmentally friendly and economically viable treatment technology should be applied. Indeed, high organic content of pulp and paper industry wastewaters make anaerobic treatment a very attractive option for these wastes. Anaerobic processes not onl...

Enhancement of anaerobic biohydrogen/methane production from cellulose using heat-treated activated sludge

Water Science and Technology, 2011

Anaerobic digestion is an effective technology to convert cellulosic wastes to methane and hydrogen. Heat-treatment is a well known method to inhibit hydrogen-consuming bacteria in using anaerobic mixed cultures for seeding. This study aims to investigate the effects of heat-treatment temperature and time on activated sludge for fermentative hydrogen production from α-cellulose by response surface methodology. Hydrogen and methane production was evaluated based on the production rate and yield (the ability of converting cellulose into hydrogen and methane) with heat-treated sludge as the seed at various temperatures (60–97°C) and times (20–60 min). Batch experiments were conducted at 55°C and initial pH of 8.0. The results indicate that hydrogen and methane production yields peaked at 4.3 mmol H2/g cellulose and 11.6 mmol CH4/g cellulose using the seed activated sludge that was thermally treated at 60°C for 40 min. These parameter values are higher than those of no-treatment seed (H...

Codigestion of Pressmud and Distillery Wastewater with Sugarcane Bagasse for Enhanced Biogas Production

2019

Anaerobic co-digestion was carried out at mesophilic condition (37°C) in 1-L media bottles with a working volume of 800 mL consisting of different dilution ratio of distillery wastewater (DWW), press mud, bagasse, and inoculum. Distillery waste water was diluted with tap water at two different ratios (2:3 and 3:2) and in two sample bottles, micronutrients were added. Batch test results showed that press mud mixed with diluted distillery wastewater with and without additional micronutrients gave the highest methane yield of 61.3% and 78.23% (v/v), respectively. Methane yield is affected by the sensitivity of microorganisms to pH variations. In this study, optimum pH was found out to be 5.0 to maximize methane yield. COD/BOD ratio was also evaluated and the optimum initial COD to BOD ratio of the sample that yields higher methane yield ranged from 1.8 to 2.6 which indicate that it is amenable to biological treatment. Meanwhile, the optimum C/N ratio is found to be in the range of 72:1 and 78:1. For the effect of dilution, higher methane yield occurred at higher dilution ratio. Moreover, anaerobic co-digestion of organic sugar waste was more favorable in biogas production compared to mono-digestion of a single biomass. Lastly, effect of micronutrients to the digestion and heterotrophic plate count were evaluated in this study.

A study on the starch and cellulose industries’ wastewater treatment by biological methods

Waste Management and the Environment IV, 2008

Since the wastewater produced by the starch and cellulose industries has a high level of COD and turbidity, there are various methods for their treatment, one of which is a biological treatment method such as constructed wetlands. In this method, the plants are planted in sand or other different media. It is better that these media have a uniform constancy and the influent and effluent flow to the system and the residence time of wastewater in the biological system must also be adjusted. By increasing the residence time, the elimination rate of COD and turbidity will be increased. As a rule, if it is not possible to increase the residence time, increasing the efficient surface or vegetation accumulation will be better. This project has been carried out from May 1998 to May 1999. Results showed reed (Phragmites spp.) planted wetland as having the ability to treat starch and cellulose industry wastewater. The mean value of COD in the constructed wetland effluent was 93.17mg/L (78% removal) and the values of turbidity, nitrite and pH were 23.04 NTU, 0.19 mg/L and 7.5 respectively. Turbidity removal ranged from 73-98% and the removal of nitrite ranged from 10-55%. The efficiency of the reed planted wetland for treating the above mentioned wastewater was reasonable and in good operational conditions its effluent could be used in agricultural irrigation or discharged into surface water or leaching pits.