Today's society is facing major challenges. In order to reduce the climate impact fossil fuels should be replaced with fuels that do not contribute to the greenhouse effect. The growing population generates organic waste originating from industry and households so called organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). Through anaerobic digestion, waste can be utilized to produce energy-rich methane gas. In this way, waste can be a resource instead of a burden on society. The purpose of this project is to investigate the methane yield of source-sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste (SS-OFMSW) pretreated with screw crush technology and methane yield at the co-digestion of food waste and biosludge from paper mills. SS-OFMSW which is either pre-treated in a screw crusher or a Food Waste Mill and a mixture of SS-OFMSW and biosludge from paper mills digested in a semi - continuous wet process under mesophilic conditions with a retention time of 20 days. Screw crush technique gave a slurry with a methane yield of about 440-490 mL / g VS, which was slightly higher than the yield of 300-350 mL / g VS from the slurry pretreated with Food Waste Mill. The methane concentration was slightly higher for slurry pretreated with Food Waste Mill, 74% in average compared with 68% for slurry pretreated with screw crush. Biosludge from paper mills is an organic waste that can be digested in order to produce biogas. The sludge is poor in nutrients and methane yield at individual anaerobic digestion of paper mill sludge is relatively low. In this study, biosludge was co-digested with SS-OFMSW. The mixture with the proportions 1:1 by g VS gave a methane yield of about 420-480 mL / g VS which is higher than the constituent substrates digested separately. Co-digestion gave a methane concentration at 80% which is also higher than at the individual anaerobic digestion of substrates.

Vid tillverkning av massa och papper förorenas årligen 505 miljoner kubikmeter vatten som måste renas innan det släpps tillbaka till omgivningen. Vid reningen avskiljs först stora partiklar som sedan avvattnas och förbränns. Vattnet som blir kvar genomgår ytterligare en rening, varvid det bildas bioslam. Bioslammet innehåller mycket intracellulärt vatten, vilket gör det kostsamt och energikrävande att avvattna. Det är även sedan 2005 förbjudet att dumpa organiskt material, varför en mer ekonomiskt attraktiv behandling av slammet är anaerob nedbrytning. I denna nedbrytning omvandlas det organiska materialet till metan och koldioxid där metanet är den eftertraktade gasen. Bioslammet innehåller dock partiklar såsom träfiberrester och mikroorganismer med komplex struktur och är näringsfattigt. Någon form av sönderdelande förbehandling underlättar därför rötningsprocessen. I detta projekt undersöktes termisk förbehandling i kombination med kemisk förbehandling på bioslam från Stora Enso Skoghalls bruk på Hammarö. Själva rötningen skedde i två omgångar varav den första omgången med termisk förbehandling vid 70C och den andra vid 140C. Den kemiska förbehandlingen skedde med tillsats av lut (natriumhydroxid), kalk (kalciumhydroxid) och syra (fosforsyra) vid pH 9 och 11 för baserna och pH 2 och 4 för syran. Även neutrala prov (endast värmebehandling) och ett blankprov (ingen förbehandling) gjordes. Bioslammet ympades med kommunalt slam från Fiskartorpets reningsverk i Kristinehamn som har en mesofil bakteriekultur. Rötningen varade i 19 dagar per omgång i en temperatur på 35C och skedde satsvis i E-kolvar försedda med påsar för gasuppsamling. Totalt rötades 42 prov per omgång som utgjordes av sju mätpunkter á sex replikat för goda statistiska underlag. Resultaten gav en indikation för högst metanproduktion för proven behandlade med kalk vid 140C och för provet utan kemisk förbehandling vid 140C. Lägst produktion hade det kalkbehandlade provet vid pH 9 och 70C följt av blankprovet. Lutproven gav lägre metanproduktion vid 140C än vid 70C och fosforsyran hade så gott som oförändrad produktion mellan temperaturerna. Gemensamt för alla prover som behandlats vid 70C var att de fick en högre procentandel metan då de behandlats vid 140C. De resultat som erhållits är dock osäkra då det i vissa fall var stor spridning mellan provens biogasproduktion inom de enskilda förbehandlingsområdena. / In the pulp and paper process 505 million tons of water are polluted annually, which has to be purified before it is returned to the surrounding lakes. When the water is treated bigger particles are first separated to form sludge, then dewatered and finally incinerated. The excess water is further treated were a type of sludge  bio sludge  is formed. The bio sludge contains high concentration of intracellular water, why it is expensive and energy demanding to dewater. It is also forbidden to dump organic waste since 2005, why a more economically attractive treatment of the water is anaerobic digestion. In the digestion organic compounds is converted into methane and carbon dioxide where the methane is the desired gas. The bio sludge also contains fiber residues and microorganisms with complex structure and is nutrient-poor, which makes it hard to digest. Some kind of disintegrating pretreatment is needed and co-digestion with a more nutrient-rich sludge to facilitate the digestion process. In this project thermal pretreatment in combination with chemical pretreatment was examined on bio sludge from Stora Enso Skoghalls bruk at Hammarö. The anaerobe digestion was done by two rounds whereof the first round thermal pretreated at 70C and the second at 140C. The chemical pretreatment was done by additive of sodium hydroxide, calcium hydroxide and phosphoric acid at pH 9 and 11 for the bases and pH 2 and 4 for the acid. Also neutral samples (no chemical pretreatment) and a reference sample (no pretreatment) were done. The bio sludge were co-digested with municipal sludge from Fiskartorpets reningsverk in Kristinehamn which has a mesophilic bacterial culture. The anaerobic digestion lasted for 19 days per round at a temperature of 35C and were done batch wise in E-flasks provided with a small bag for gas collection. Totally 42 samples were made per round which consisted of seven measurement points and six replicates each for a good statistical basis. The results gave an indication of the highest methane production for the samples treated with calcium hydroxide at 140C and the neutral sample treated at 140C. The sample treated with calcium hydroxide at pH 9 and 70C gave the lowest production of methane followed by the reference sample. The samples treated with sodium hydroxide gave a lower methane production at 140C than at 70C while the acid treated samples had almost the same production at the two different temperatures. All the samples had in common a higher proportion of methane in the biogas when treated at 140C than at 70C. The results should be taken with caution since the distribution amongst the samples within the same pretreatment method sometimes is very high.

Scum is an integral component of solids management in MWWTP and is composed of fats, oils, grease and other entrained floatable materials that are collected during primary clarification. Lab scale BMP tests showed the addition of 14.5 g VS/L of scum exhibited the greatest increase in biogas production of 1.6 times per g VS added compared to the control, while a higher additional scum loading of 33.7 g VS/L reduced the biogas yield to 32% of the control reactor. Lab scale semi-continuous digestion measured the effects of scum loading and temperature of pretreatment in the scum concentrator. At 15 d and 20 d HRTs the greatest observed improvement in biogas was achieved by adding 3% scum by volume and pretreating the scum at 70°C in a scum concentrator with respective improvements of 24% and 16%.

Anaerobic digestion is a sustainable and economically feasible waste management technology, which lowers the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), decreases the soil and water pollution, and reduces the dependence on fossil fuels. The present thesis investigates the anaerobic digestion of waste from food-processing industries, including citrus wastes (CWs) from juice processing and chicken feather from poultry slaughterhouses. Juice processing industries generate 15–25 million tons of citrus wastes every year. Utilization of CWs is not yet resolved, since drying or incineration processes are costly, due to the high moisture content; and biological processes are hindered by its peel oil content, primarily the D-limonene. Anaerobic digestion of untreated CWs consequently results in process failure because of the inhibiting effect of the produced and accumulated VFAs. The current thesis involves the development of a steam explosion pretreatment step. The methane yield increased by 426 % to 0.537 Nm3/kg VS by employing the steam explosion treatment at 150 °C for 20 min, which opened up the compact structure of the CWs and removed 94 % of the D-limonene. The developed process enables a production of 104 m3 methane and 8.4 L limonene from one ton of fresh CWs. Poultry slaughterhouses generate a significant amount of feather every year. Feathers are basically composed of keratin, an extremely strong and resistible structural protein. Methane yield from feather is low, around 0.18 Nm3/kg VS, which corresponds to only one third of the theoretical yield. In the present study, chemical, enzymatic and biological pretreatment methods were investigated to improve the biogas yield of feather waste. Chemical pretreatment with Ca(OH)2 under relatively mild conditions (0.1 g Ca(OH)2/g TSfeather, 100 °C, 30 min) improved the methane yield to 0.40 Nm3/kg VS, corresponding to 80 % of the theoretical yield. However, prior to digestion, the calcium needs to be removed. Enzymatic pretreatment with an alkaline endopeptidase, Savinase®, also increased the methane yield up to 0.40 Nm3/kg VS. Direct enzyme addition to the digester was tested and proved successful, making this process economically more feasible, since no additional pretreatment step is needed. For biological pretreatment, a recombinant Bacillus megaterium strain holding a high keratinase activity was developed. The new strain was able to degrade the feather keratin which resulted in an increase in the methane yield by 122 % during the following anaerobic digestion. / <p>Akademisk avhandling som för avläggande av teknologie doktorsexamen vid Chalmers tekniska högskola försvaras vid offentlig disputation den 1 juni 2012, klockan 10.00 i KA-salen, Kemigården 4, Göteborg.</p>

Biogas production from organic materials can be used as a renewable vehicle fuel, provide heat and generate electricity and can thereby reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. This thesis focuses on the biogas production based on lignocelluloses. There is an abundant availability of lignocelluloses, constituting 50% of the total biomass worldwide. However, the biomass recalcitrance limits the microbial degradation as well as the biogas production from these types of materials. In the present work different pretreatment methods have been performed in order to decrease the biomass recalcitrance and improve the biogas production. Steam explosion pretreatment, together with the addition of sodium hydroxide and hydrogen peroxide, has been performed on lignocellulosic-rich paper tube residuals. The pretreatment has resulted in methane yields of up to 493 NmL/gVS, which is an increase by 107% compared with untreated material. Furthermore, the use of an organic solvent, N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO), was evaluated as a pretreatment method for spruce (both chips and milled), rice straw, and triticale straw. The NMMO pretreatment resulted in 202, 395, 328, and 362 NmL CH4/g carbohydrates produced of these substrates, respectively, corresponding to an increase of between 400-1,200% compared with the untreated version of the same material. Moreover, the paper tube residuals have been co-digested with an unstable nitrogen-rich substrate mixture, mainly based on municipal solid waste. The addition of the lignocellulosic-rich paper tubes in a co-digestion process showed stabilizing effects and prevented the accumulation of volatile fatty acids with a subsequent reactor failure. Additionally, synergistic effects have been found leading to between 15-33% higher methane yields when paper tubes were added to the co-digestion process compared with the yields calculated from the methane potentials of the two substrates. Substrate characterization analysis can be used to study the changes on the lignocellulosic components after the pretreatment, relating the changes to the performance in the anaerobic digestion. Increased accessible surface area, measured by the Simons’ stain and the enzymatic adsorption methods, as well as decreased crystallinity, determined by using the Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, can all be linked to improved biogas production after pretreatment. Finally, the NMMO pretreatment on forest residues has been financially evaluated for an industrial scale process design. The base case that was evaluated simulated a case where pretreated forest residues were co-digested with the organic fraction of municipal solid waste to obtain optimal nutritional balance for the anaerobic digestion. This process has been found to be economically feasible with an internal rate of return of 20.7%. / <p>Akademisk avhandling som för avläggande av teknologie doktorsexamen vid Chalmers tekniska högskola försvaras vid offentlig disputation den 24 maj 2013, klockan 10.00 i KA,Kemigården 4, Göteborg</p>

The application of anaerobic digestion technology is growing worldwide, mainly because of its environmental benefits. Nevertheless, anaerobic degradation is a rather slow and sensitive process. One of the reasons is the recalcitrance nature of certain fractions of the substrate (e.g., lignocelluloses) used for microbial degradation; thus, the hydrolysis becomes the rate-limiting step. The other reason is that the degradation of organic matter is based on a highly dynamic, multi-step process of physicochemical and biochemical reactions. The reactions take place in a sequential and parallel way under symbiotic interrelation of a variety of anaerobic microorganisms, which all together make the process sensitive. The first stage of the decomposition of the organic matter is performed by fast growing (hydrolytic and acid forming) microorganisms, while in the second stage the organic acids produced are metabolized by the slow growing methanogens, which are more sensitive than the acidogens; thus, methanogenesis becomes the rate-limiting step. The first part of this work evaluates the effects of a pretreatment using an organic solvent, N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO), on cellulose-based materials in order to overcome the challenge of biomass recalcitrance and to increase the rate of the hydrolysis. NMMO-pretreatment of straw separated from the cattle and horse manure resulted in increased methane yields, by 53% and 51%, respectively, in batch digestion tests. The same kind of pretreatment of the forest residues led to an increase by 141% in the methane production during the following batch digestion assays. The second part of this work evaluates the efficacy of a two-stage process to overcome the second challenge with methanogenesis as the rate-limiting step, by using CSTR (continuous stirred tank reactors) and UASB (up flow anaerobic sludge blanket) on a wide variety of different waste fractions in order to decrease the time needed for the digestion process. In the two-stage semi-continuous process, the NMMO-pretreatment of jeans increased the biogas yield due to a more efficient hydrolysis compared to that of the untreated jeans. The results indicated that a higher organic loading rate (OLR) and a lower retention time could be achieved if the material was easily degradable. Comparing the two-stage and the single-stage process, treating the municipal solid waste (MSW) and waste from several food processing industries (FPW), showed that the OLR could be increased from 2 gVS/l/d to 10 gVS/l /d, and at the same time the HRT could be decreased from 10 to 3 days, which is a significant improvement that could be beneficial from an industrial point of view. The conventional single stage, on the other hand, could only handle an OLR of 3 gVS/l/d and HRT of 7 days.

Fruits are among the most important commodities in global trading due to its fundamental nutritional values. In 2012, the fruits supply was 115 kg/person/year, however, only 50 % of the fruits reached their consumers and the rest ended up as waste during the long fruit supply chain. The waste from fruits is mostly dumped or burned, creating a serious environmental problem. A more sustainable handling of the waste is therefore highly desirable. One of them is conversion of the fruits wastes into biogas through anaerobic digestion. One challenge with the conversion of fruits wastes into biogas is the presence of antimicrobial compounds in the fruits, which reduce the biogas yield or even cause a total failure of the process. Fruit flavors have been reported to have antimicrobial activity against several microorganisms and being responsible for the defense system in the fruits. However, there is only scarce information about the effect of fruit flavors on anaerobic digesting microbia. The objectives of the present thesis were: 1) to investigate the inhibitory activity of the fruit flavors on anaerobic digestion; 2) to remove the flavor compound by pretreatment; and 3) to protect the cell from the flavor compounds using a membrane bioreactor. The inhibitory activity of the fruit flavors was examined from different groups of flavors by adding a single flavor compound into the batch anaerobic digesting system, at three different concentrations. Among the flavors added, myrcene and octanol were found to exhibit a strong inhibitory activity, with 50 % reduction of the methane production at low concentrations, ca. 0.005–0.05 %. These flavors can be found in oranges, strawberries, grapes, plums, and mangoes. The other flavors tested showed moderate and low inhibitory activity, which might not affect the anaerobic digestion of the fruits wastes. In order to overcome the inhibitory effects of the fruit flavor, two approaches were proposed in this thesis, namely, fruit flavor removal by leaching pretreatment and cell protection from fruit flavor using a membrane bioreactor. Orange peel waste and D-limonene were used as a model of fruit waste and inhibitor, respectively. The leaching pretreatment uses solvent to extract the limonene from the orange peel. The methane yield increased by 356 % from 0.061 Nm3/kg VS to 0.217 Nm3/kg VS, by pretreating the peel using hexane with peel and a hexane ratio of 1:12 at room temperature for 10 min. Alternative to limonene removal, the cells were encased in a hydrophilic membrane, which is impermeable to hydrophobic limonene. This method yielded more than six times higher methane yield, compared to the free cell. At the highest organic loading rate, examined in this work, 3 g VS/L/day, the methane yield of the reactor containing the free cell was only 0.05 Nm3/kg VS, corresponding to 10 % of the theoretical yield, whereas 0.33 Nm3/kg VS methane yield was achieved using a membrane bioreactor corresponding to 75 % of the theoretical yield. / <p>Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Borås to be publicly defended on November 27th 2014, 10.00 a.m. in room E310, University of Borås, Allégatan 1, Borås.</p>

The overall goal of the thesis was to develop and optimize the moving bed biofilm reactor technology under anaerobic conditions. The thesis work was divided into two different series of experiments. Hence, at first, the reactor start-up on synthetic substrate was evaluated and it was proven that the anaerobic moving bed biofilm reactor technology could successfully treat concentrated wastewater. Subsequently, a study on Fort Garry Brewery wastewater was conducted to optimize the process for a typical North American industrial wastewater. The aim was successfully achieved and a potential design to treat Fort Garry Brewery wastewater was developed. The anaerobic moving bed biofilm reactor was found to be capable in treating brewery wastewater with potential savings to the industry paying surcharges for discharging wastewater over the city sewer bylaw limits. / October 2016

A number of advanced pre-treatment techniques and methods have been evaluated for the sole purpose of improving digestibility of waste activated sludge. The pre-treatment of waste activated sludge (WAS) offers the benefit of releasing solubilized substrates, making them readily available to be utilized in the anaerobic digestion process. Other potential benefits include: reducing shock loading to the digester, improving overall digestibility and potentially providing filament / foaming control. Chlorine dioxide, a well-known disinfectant and oxidizing agent has been utilized in many drinking water processes around the world. Its use in wastewater treatment processes however is limited; especially in Canada where legislation has prevented its use for final effluent disinfection. As an oxidizing agent, chlorine dioxide induces cell rupture resulting in the release of soluble material, which when fed into the digester, may serve as readily available substrate for active microorganisms. This mode of action creates the potential for chlorine dioxide to be used as a sludge pre-treatment agent to improve digester performance and in alleviating pre-existing filamentous sludge bulking. This study was conducted using waste activated sludge obtained from the City of Winnipeg’s South End Water Pollution Control Centre (SEWPCC), with the following objectives: 1. Determine the efficacy of chlorine dioxide in alleviating pre-existing filamentous sludge bulking; 2. Determine chlorine dioxide ability to increase WAS solubilization; and 3. Define impact of chlorine dioxide on anaerobic digester performance. WAS pre-treatment using chlorine dioxide was found to be effective in alleviating filamentous bulking. This is significant as filamentous bulking in the activated sludge may lead several problems downstream. Following pre-treatment, sludge bulking was determined to be alleviated as observed by photomicrographic evidence and as measured by a 57% decrease in the stirred sludge volume index (sSVI). Particulate COD solubilization increased by 60%, 76%, and 74% over the untreated sludge for WAS pre-treated with 25, 50, and 100 mg ClO2/L (v/v), respectively. The pre-treatment of sludge using chlorine dioxide did not have any negative impact on digester performance although it also did not lead to improved performance. The volatile solids destruction and COD removal remained unchanged for both untreated and pre-treated sludge. Chlorine dioxide pre-treatment did not affect anaerobic digestion even at the lowest SRT evaluated; it is possible to decrease the digester SRT to as low as 6 days while maintaining the solids destruction and COD removal capability. Biogas production did not improve with increasing chlorine dioxide dosage during pre-treatment but also was not hindered by the pre-treatment agent. Chlorine dioxide was shown to alleviate filamentous bulking and improve solubility and has the potential to improve digester performance without negative impacts to the digester. However, the full benefit of the pre-treatment method may only be realized for complex “difficult to disintegrate” sludge types. / October 2016

Dans un contexte énergétique en crise, les sources alternatives d'énergie et d'économie d'énergie sont primordiales. Fort de ce constat, la station d'épuration de demain se doit d'atteindre un bilan énergétique positif. Dans cet objectif, de nombreux travaux de recherche se focalisent au niveau mondial sur la valorisation matière et énergétique à travers un procédé d'intérêt : la digestion anaérobie des boues. Afin d'optimiser ce procédé, la connaissance de la matière organique entrante est cruciale pour ne plus la subir mais la contrôler et en prédire les impacts sur les performances des digesteurs, notamment grâce à la modélisation. Une méthodologie de caractérisation de la matière organique des boues a donc été mise en place et testée afin de prédire les variables du modèle de digestion anaérobie basées sur la biodégradabilité et la bioaccessibilité. Cette méthode repose sur la mesure de la fluorescence en 3 dimensions réalisée sur les extractions chimiques de la boue, extractions simulant son accessibilité. Les résultats obtenus sur 52 échantillons de boues (primaires, secondaires, digérées, et traitées thermiquement) ont mis en évidence avec succès la corrélation entre cette méthode et la biodégradabilité anaérobie ainsi que la bioaccessibilité des boues. Le temps analytique classique de 30 jours pour les tests de potentiel méthane est par ailleurs réduit à 5 jours. Grâce à ces résultats, les variables d'entrée du modèle des processus biologiques ont pu être caractérisées ainsi que les composés réfractaires à la digestion. Une validation de la méthodologie a également été réalisée par le biais de la modélisation de 2 réacteurs pilotes expérimentaux. Une analyse de scenarios utilisant le modèle calibré a aussi montré que grâce à la prédiction de la bioaccessibilité et de la biodégradabilité, un temps de séjour minimum des digesteurs peut être calculé via une corrélation linéaire et ainsi optimiser le dimensionnement des digesteurs. De plus, cette approche s'est avérée être d'un grand potentiel en termes d'applications pour l'instrumentation et l'aide à la décision afin d'optimiser les performances des procédés de digestion anaérobie. / In an energetic crisis context, alternative sources of energy and saving costs has become of first importance. From this observation, the wastewater treatment plants of the future aim at a positive energetic balance and worldwide research on sludge treatment today focuses on energetic and material valorization through the optimization of anaerobic digestion processes. To this end, knowledge of the input organic matter is crucial to avoid suffering from these disturbances and to control, predict or drive the process through modeling. In the present study, a methodology of sludge characterization is investigated to describe biodegradability and bioaccessibility variables used in anaerobic digestion models. This method is based on the three dimensional fluorescence spectroscopy measurement performed on the chemical extraction of sludge simulating accessibility. Results obtained in 52 sludge samples (primary, secondary digested and thermally treated) show that the method can be successfully correlated with the sludge biodegradability and bioaccessibility within 5 days instead of the 30 days usually needed for the biochemical methane potential tests. Based on these results, input variables of dynamic models of biological processes occurring in anaerobic digestion have been characterized as well as recalcitrant fluorescent compounds. Validation has been performed with modeling of experimental data obtained from two different laboratory scale reactors. Scenarios analysis with the calibrated model have shown that using the measurements of sludge bioaccessibility and biodegradability, a minimal hydraulic retention time could be calculated with a linear correlation leading to the improvement of digesters design. Moreover, this approach has a high potential for applications such as instrumentation or decision support systems to improve both control and optimization of anaerobic digestion processes.