Simulation of two-dimensional attainable regions and its application to model digester structures for maximum stability of anaerobic treatment process.

Unlike high-rate anaerobic digesters that employ some mechanism to retain microbial sludge mass, low-rate systems use sufficiently long hydraulic retention times to ensure process stability, which becomes economically unattractive for treating large quantities of waste. This study presents the use of attainable region to develop a new strategy to enhance the stability of low-rate digesters. By considering three digestion cases, diary manure only (batch 1) or diary manure with granular (batch 2) or lagoon (batch) sludge as innoculum, the following findings were obtained.

Improving nutrient fixation and dry matter content of an ammonium-rich anaerobic digestion effluent by struvite formation and clay adsorption.

The anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic wastes that contain nitrogen leads to its mineralization, yielding a digestate rich in ammonium (NH(4)(+)), an important fertilizing nutrient. The applicability of AD digestate as fertilizer can be improved by fixating the nutrients and increasing its dry matter content. Methods for the fixation and recovery of the digestate's NH(4)(+) and possible also PO(4)(3-) include struvite precipitation and adsorption in clay materials such as bentonite.

Methane production and energy evaluation of a farm scaled biogas plant in cold climate area.

The aim of this study was to investigate the specific methane production and the energy balance at a small farm scaled mesophilic biogas plant in a cold climate area. The main substrate was dairy cow slurry. Fish silage was used as co-substrate for two of the three test periods.

Semi-continuous anaerobic co-digestion of cow manure and steam-exploded Salix with recirculation of liquid digestate.

The effects of recirculating the liquid fraction of the digestate during mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of steam-exploded Salix and cow manure were investigated in laboratory-scale continuously stirred tank reactors. An average organic loading rate of 2.6 g VS L(-1) d(-1) and a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 30 days were employed.

Effects of steam explosion and co-digestion in the methane production from Salix by mesophilic batch assays.

Salix that was steam exploded at different conditions of temperature and time was anaerobically digested in a series of batch tests. Steam explosion proved to be favorable to increase the methane yields up to 50%, with best results obtained for temperatures starting at 210 °C. Batch studies for mixtures of cow manure and steam exploded Salix were performed, with C/N ratios varying from 31 to 56, related to volatile solids (VS) contents from 20 up to 80% of each of the substrates.