ศศิกานต์ นุชแดง. Characteristics of glycerol digestion and glycerolpig manure co-digestion for biogas. Master's Degree(Chemical Engineering). King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok. Central Library. : King Mongkut's University of Technology North Bangkok, 2009.
Characteristics of glycerol digestion and glycerolpig manure co-digestion for biogas
Abstract:
The anaerobic digestion of crude glycerol in the two-stage community-scale
UASB was investigated. During the 87 operating days, COD reduction reached
approximately 90%. Biogas production from crude glycerol was approximately 0.003
m3/d on the first 40 operating day. However, after that, sludge flotation was observed
and biogas production was halted. The results illustrated that crude glycerol was not
suitable for using as a carbon source for UASB operation because biodiesel oils and
soap typically contaminated in the crude glycerol cause sludge floatation.
A synthetic wastewater with acid-pretreated glycerol as a sole carbon source
was used in a lab-scale UASB at OLR ranging between 1.30 to 5.38 kg COD/m3/d
and HRT of 4,3,2 and 1 day. The data on COD removal suggested that the adaptation
of the inoculum to the glycerol feed was relatively difficult, i.e., the COD removal
reached 80% after 80 days. During the HRT of 4, 3 and 2 days, the steady-state COD
removal increased with increasing operating days from 80% to 86%. However, at the
final HRT of 1 day, the adaptation became slow and required more than 38 days for
the COD removal to climb up to a steady state COD removal. At the HRT of 1 day,
the propionic acid concentration was approximately 2.94 mmol/L and the acetic acid
concentration was nil, causing the propionic acid and acetic acid ratio approached
infinity. It has been suggested that the propionic acid to acetic acid ratio greater than
1.4 was an indicator of digester imbalance. The methane gas production from the
acid-pretreated glycerol was relatively low, ranging between 0.08 to 0.29 m3STP/kg
COD removal, respectively.
In order to investigate the co-digestion of glycerol and pig manure, a wastewater
was prepared with the acid-pretreated glycerol and pig manure. The data showed that pig manure helped the adaptation of the working microorganisms. The co-digestion
required 11 days for 66% COD removal, while the digestion of the acid-pretreated
glycerol required 11 days for 40 % COD removal.