abstract: Seeking to address sustainability issues associated with food waste (FW), and fat, oil, and grease (FOG) waste disposal, the City of Mesa commissioned the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology (BSCEB) at Arizona State University (ASU) to study to the impact of implementing FW/FOG co-digestion at the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). A key issue for the study was the “souring” of the anaerobic digesters (ADs), which means that the microorganism responsible for organic degradation were deactivated, causing failure of the AD. Several bench-scale reactors soured after the introduction of the FW/FOG feed streams. By comparing measurements from stable with measurements from the souring reactors, I identified two different circumstances responsible for souring events. One set of reactors soured rapidly after the introduction of FW/FOG due to the digester’s hydraulic retention times (HRT) becoming too short for stable operation. A second set of reactors soured after a long period of stability due to steady accumulation of fatty acids (FAs) that depleted bicarbonate alkalinity. FA accumulation was caused by the incomplete hydrolysis/fermentation of feedstock protein, leading to insufficient release of ammonium (NH4+). In contrast, carbohydrates were more rapidly hydrolyzed and fermented to FAs. The most important contribution of my research is that I identified several leading indicators of souring. In all cases of souring, the accumulation of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) was an early and easily quantified indicator. A shift in effluent FA concentrations from shorter to longer species also portended souring. A reduction in the yield of methane (CH4) per mass of volatile suspended solids removed (VSSR) also identified souring conditions, but its variability prevented the methane yield from providing advanced warning to allow intervention. For the rapidly soured reactors, reduced bicarbonate alkalinity was the most useful warning sign, and an increasing ratio of SCOD to bicarbonate alkalinity was the clearest sign of souring. Because I buffered the slow-souring reactors with calcium carbonate (CaCO3), I could not rely on bicarbonate alkalinity as an indicator, which put a premium on SCOD as the early warning. I implemented two buffering regimes and demonstrated that early and consistent buffering could lead to reactor recovery. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis East Asian Languages and Civilizations 2020

La digestion anaérobie, procédé d’énergie renouvelable, constitue un atout indéniable de récupération des flux matière et énergie des déchets en réponse aux enjeux du développement durable. Ainsi, la présente étude a pour objectif de contribuer à la compréhension des mécanismes qui gouvernent l’environnement réactionnel de digestion en anaérobie et les effets des digestats sur la matrice bio-physico-chimique des sols à vocation agricole. Le développement des tests de lixiviation en réacteurs contrôlés aérobie et anaérobie, les modes de mobilisation du contenu organo-minéral des substrats et la valorisation du biogaz pour l’équarrissage des bêtes ont été réalisés. Les verrous techniques et physico-chimiques entachant la digestion anaérobie des déchets d’ananas ont été levés et optimisés grâce à des co-substrats notamment les bouses de vache et les cendres. Les digestats ont été apportés sur des sols agricoles, des sols des zones de forêts et des milieux sans matière organique ni argiles et ont permis de déceler les limites d’utilisation des digestats et les interactions avec les fractions organiques et minérales du sol. Cette étude montre ainsi, l’importance de développer la filière de méthanisation pour une élimination durable des déchets organiques. / Anaerobic digestion, a renewal energy process, constitutes an undeniable asset of material and energy flows recovering in response to sustainable development issues. Thus, the aim of this current study was to contribute to the understanding of mechanisms that govern the reactive environment of anaerobic digestion and the effects of digestates on the biophysico- chemical matrix of agricultural soils sector. The running of leaching tests in aerobic and anaerobic controlled reactors, organo-mineral mobilizations patterns of the substrates and the valorization of biogas in slaughtered animals knackering have been realized. The physicochemical and technical locks tarnishing the pineapple wastes anaerobic digestion have been lifted and optimized through the co-substrates including cattle manure and ashes. The digestates have been brought on agricultural soils, forests areas soils and medium free of organic matter and clays and allowed to detect the limits of digestates uses and the interactions with organic and mineral fractions of soils. This study, thus show, the importance to develop the anaerobic digestion sector for a sustainable removal of organic wastes.

This study was conducted to address the controlling factors of biosolids stability as they relate to mesophilic anaerobic digestion, dewatering processes and digestion enhancement by wet sludge disintegration technologies. The working hypothesis of this study is that digestion performance; nuisance odor generation and the degree of digestion enhancement by wet sludge disintegration are directly related to anaerobic floc structure and its interaction with shearing forces. Mesophilic digestion was studied in two modes of operation, convention high rate and internal recycle mode to enhanced digestion using a wet sludge disintegration device. The internal recycle system operated on the premise that stabilized sludge would be removed from the digester disintegrated, either by mechanical shear or ultrasonic disintegration for this study, and returned it for to the digester further for further stabilization. Both benchscale and full-scale demonstrations found this mode of digestion enhancement to be effective for mechanical shear and ultrasonic disintegration. It was also determined that volatile solids destruction in both conventional and enhanced mesophilic anaerobic digesters can be reasonably predicted by the concentration of cations in the sludge being treated. It was found that depending on the disintegration device used to enhance digestion performance was influenced by different cation associated fractions of the sludge floc. Along with the improvement of digester performance, overall biosolids stability was investigated through of volatile organic sulfur emissions from dewatered biosolids. In doing so, a method to mimic high solids centrifugation in the laboratory was developed. The centrifugation method identified three major factors that contribute to the generation of odors from biosolids: shear, polymer dose, and cake dryness. The inclusion of shearings suggest that one means of reducing odors from biosolids generated by centrifugation is to use a shear enhanced digestion technology to degrade odor precursors, such as amino acids, within the digester prior to dewatering. Furthermore, the mechanical shearing within a digester is thought to be similar to that of mechanical shear enhanced digestion; therefore, the floc properties that control the digestion process would control observed odor generation. / Ph. D.

La production de biogaz par digestion anaérobie (DA) est une technologie renouvelable de longue date et un bioprocessus en croissance continue. Les matériaux lignocellulosiques (ML) présentent plusieurs caractéristiques qui les rendent particulièrement attrayants parmi les substrats couramment employés dans les bioréacteurs anaérobies. En particulier, les ML sous la forme de résidus agricoles ont été reconnus comme la matière première la plus appropriée pour la production de biométhane en raison de leur haute disponibilité, de leur faible coût, de leur durabilité et de leur absence de concurrence directe avec la production alimentaire. Cependant, leur récurrence à la conversion biologique entrave leur application pour la production à grande échelle de biogaz et nécessite une étape de prétraitement pour améliorer la dégradabilité microbienne. En plus des défis posés par la structure lignocellulosique, la fourniture de oligo-éléments (OE) a souvent été jugée insuffisante dans les digesteurs de biogaz. La croissance microbienne dépend de la disponibilité et de la quantité optimale de plusieurs OE spécifiques, constituants essentiels des cofacteurs dans les systèmes enzymatiques impliqués dans la biochimie de la formation de méthane. Différents prétraitements chimiques, à savoir le N-méthylmorpholine-N-oxyde (NMMO), le procédé organosolv et un prétraitement alcalin à l'aide de NaOH ont été étudiés pendant plusieurs expériences en lots pour améliorer les rendements de production de biogaz différents peau, coquille de fève de cacao et paille de blé). Les changements dans la cristallinité de la cellulose, la valeur de rétention d'eau et la composition chimique ont été évalués pour mieux évaluer l'effet des différents prétraitements étudiés sur la structure lignocellulosique. En outre, l'addition de différentes doses de Fe, Co, Ni et Se sur la DA de paille de riz a été étudiée, évaluant l'influence de l'origine de l'inoculum, ainsi que la performance et l'effet synergique de la combinaison d'un prétraitement alcalin avec addition de trace éléments avant la DA de paille de riz. La biodisponibilité des OE lors des tests de potentiel de biométhane par lots a également été évaluée en appliquant une technique d'extraction séquentielle. Les trois prétraitements étudiés étaient des méthodes efficaces pour améliorer la production de biométhane à partir des LM utilisées. Le rendement en biométhane de la DA de paille de riz a augmenté de 82 et 41% respectivement après le NMMO et le prétraitement organosolv. Comparé à la même expérience, le prétraitement NMMO, organosolv et NaOH a permis d'améliorer la DA de la paille de blé, ce qui affecte différemment la composition chimique de la LM brute. Le rendement cumulatif de production de biométhane de 274 mL de CH4/g VS obtenu avec la paille de blé non traitée a été augmenté de 11% par le prétraitement du NMMO et de 15% par le prétraitement organosolv et alcalin. Les coquilles de noisettes et de fèves de cacao, qui n'avaient jamais été étudiées auparavant comme substrats AD, présentaient un bon potentiel de production de biogaz, avec des rendements cumulatifs de biométhane respectivement de 223-261 et 199-231 mL CH4/g VS pour les charges non traitées. Cependant, les prétraitements à la fois de NMMO et d'organosolv n'ont pas conduit à une amélioration significative des rendements de production de biométhane de ces deux LM. La supplémentation des OE n'a eu qu'un effet mineur par rapport aux méthodes de prétraitement. L'ajout de Fe, Co, Ni et Se n'a pas entraîné d'amélioration significative de la DA de paille de riz, alors que l'utilisation du prétraitement de NaOH au cours de la même expérimentation a provoqué une augmentation considérable de la DA, augmentant la production de biogaz de 21%. L'effet négligeable observé après la supplémentation des OE sur la paille de riz pourrait être lié à sa structure lignocellulosique complexe qui nécessite une amélioration de l'hydrolyse qui est l'étape limitante / Biogas production via anaerobic digestion (AD) is a long-standing renewable technology and a continuously growing bioprocess worldwide. Lignocellulosic materials (LMs) present several features that make them especially attractive among the organic substrates commonly employed in anaerobic bioreactors. In particular, LMs under the form of agricultural residues have been acknowledged as the most suitable feedstock for biomethane production due to their high availability, low cost, sustainability and no direct competition with food and feed production. However, their recalcitrance to biological conversion hinders their application for full-scale production of biogas and requires a pretreatment step to improve the LM microbial degradability. In addition to the challenges posed by the lignocellulosic structure, the supply of trace elements (TEs) has often been found insufficient within biogas digesters. The microbial growth depends on the availability and optimal amount of several specific TEs, which are essential constituents of cofactors in enzyme systems involved in the biochemistry of methane formation. Different chemical pretreatments, namely the solvent N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide (NMMO), the organosolv process, and an alkaline pretreatment using NaOH, were investigated during several batch experiments to enhance the biogas production yields from different LMs (i.e. rice straw, hazelnut skin, cocoa bean shell and wheat straw). Changes in the cellulose crystallinity, water retention value and chemical composition were assessed to better evaluate the effect of the different pretreatments studied on the lignocellulosic structure. Furthermore, the addition of different doses of Fe, Co, Ni and Se on the AD of rice straw was studied, evaluating the influence of the inoculum origin, as well as the performance and synergistic effect of combining an alkaline pretreatment with the addition of trace elements prior to the AD of rice straw. The bioavailability of TEs during batch biomethane potential tests was also evaluated applying a sequential extraction technique. The three pretreatments investigated were effective methods for enhancing the biomethane production from the employed LMs. The biomethane yield from the AD of rice straw increased by 82 and 41% after the NMMO and organosolv pretreatment, respectively. When compared within the same experiment, the NMMO, organosolv and NaOH pretreatment were able to improve the AD of wheat straw, differently affecting the chemical composition of the raw LM. The cumulative biomethane production yield of 274 mL CH4/g VS obtained with the untreated wheat straw was enhanced by 11% by the NMMO pretreatment and by 15% by both the organosolv and alkaline pretreatment. Hazelnut skin and cocoa bean shell, which were never investigated before as AD substrates, showed a good potential for biogas production, with cumulative biomethane yields of 223-261 and 199-231 mL CH4/g VS, respectively, for the untreated feedstocks. However, both NMMO and organosolv pretreatments did not lead to a significant enhancement of the biomethane production yields from these two LMs. The TE supplementation had only a minor effect compared to the pretreatment methods. The addition of Fe, Co, Ni and Se did not result in a significant improvement of the AD of rice straw, whereas the use of the NaOH pretreatment, during the same batch experiment, caused a considerable enhancement of the AD, increasing the biogas production yield by 21%. The negligible effect observed after TE supplementation on the AD of rice straw could be linked to its complex lignocellulosic structure, which requires an enhancement of the hydrolysis, which, rather than the methanogenesis, is the rate-limiting step

Anaerobic Digestion (AD) is an essential component in wastewater treatment to recover energy from waste and deals with sludge management issues effectively. AD is a treatment process that converts organic matter to methane and carbon dioxide with multi-step biological reactions. Methanogenesis, the subprocess of AD that produces methane, is an important indicator of the stability of AD and is influenced by pH, temperature, ammonia, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), and solids concentrations among other factors. Ammonia is an essential nutrient for methanogenic bacteria but at certain ammonia concentrations and pH levels, ammonia is said to be a toxicant for methanogenic archaea. Substrates that are high in ammonia content can include those high in protein, such as food waste, which can be inhibitory to methanogens in the digestion process. Thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) also contains a large amount of nitrogen with its higher solids concentration, promoting methane production. VFAs are produced during acidogenesis and they can negatively affect methanogenic archaea. High organic loading rates into AD can lead to an accumulation of VFAs and thus inhibition of methanogenic activity. Even with well-known inhibitory effects of ammonia and VFAs on methanogenesis, there are limited tools available for modelling these inhibitions, especially when evaluating diverse compositions of substrate. The objectives of this research work are to experiment for various pairings of pH, ammonia, and acetate levels using batch reactors and to quantify the inhibition on the overall methane production using an AD-based model focused on biological reactions. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

This research sought to optimize anaerobic co-digestion of microalgae biomass harvested from a wastewater treatment pond facility with locally-available wastes. The goal was to produce high methane yields and stable digestion without the need for supplemental alkalinity addition. A key research question was if algae digestion could be improved via the synergistic effects of co-digestion. Cell disruption to increase digestibility was not pursued due to its relatively high mechanical complexity and high energy use. For the wastewater treatment ponds studied, the most practical co-substrates identified were municipal wastewater sludge and food waste (sorted organic municipal waste). Although wastewater sludge does not have a particularly high carbon:nitrogen (C:N) ratio, it readily and stably digests and is available in large quantities at wastewater treatment plants. This research investigated the methane productivity of algae co-digestion with municipal wastewater sludge and food waste in semi-continuous bench-scale anaerobic digesters at 37.5˚C. Digesters fed pure algae biomass loaded at a rate of 4 g Volatile Solids (VS)/L-day with a 20-day residence time exhibited stable digestion and yielded an average of 0.23 L CH4/g VS Introduced. For digesters that contained algae biomass in the feed, the greatest methane yield of 0.40 mL CH4/g VSin was observed in a digester containing 50% algae co-digested with both sorted organic municipal waste (40%), and municipal wastewater sludge (10%) at a loading rate of 2 g VS/L-day with a 20-day residence time. While adding co-substrates increased yields in all digesters, prevention of ammonia toxicity did not appear to be the mechanism. Instead, the co-substrates simply increased the concentration of readily-digestible organic carbon, leading to increased methane yields and productivities. For algae biomass, total ammonia nitrogen concentrations of 3370 mg/L did not appear to inhibit methane yield. Digesters with the same feed contents and residence time loaded at 2 and 4 g VS/L-d had similar yields but total ammonia nitrogen concentrations of 1740 and 3370 mg/L respectively. From the data from these laboratory studies, descriptive models were developed for ammonia nitrogen, alkalinity, volatile fatty acids, yield, biogas quality, and volatile solids destruction. The variables from the descriptive models with p-values above 0.05 were then used to create a compact model.

In municipal wastewater treatment, anaerobic digestion is the slowest process requiring at least 15 day solids retention time (SRT). Treating only a small fraction of the total wastewater stream, anaerobic digesters require large reactor volumes and consistent heating (40°C). Thus, there is a growing need to investigate techniques to improve digestion efficiency. The long SRT requirement is a result of the time required for biological reactions such as hydrolysis and acetoclastic methanogenesis. There are numerous pretreatment methods which have so far been developed to particularly enhance hydrolysis. These pretreatment methods include thermalization, mechanical treatments, and chemical treatments. These methods aim to increase the degradability of the influent waste sludge which in turn will increase the efficiency of the digestion process. The goal of the research presented in this thesis is to enhance another limiting biological reaction: acetoclastic methanogenesis. Microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) technology was integrated into lab-scale anaerobic digesters in order to accelerate biosolids destruction under various SRT and temperature conditions. Various mathematical simulations were conducted using a developed steady-state ADM1 (Anaerobic Digestion Model No.1) model to further evaluate the performance of the digesters. The results of the research indicate that the proposed method is effective at shortened SRTs (e.g., 6 days) and can enhance the stability of anaerobic digestion when exposed to variations in temperature and influent composition. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

No description available.

No description available.

A series of lab-scaled digestion studies including conventional mesophilic anaerobic digestion(MAD), thermophilic anaerobic digestion (TAD) at a range of treatment temperatures, and mesophilic high solids digestion of thermally pretreated wastewater sludge (THD) were carried out. Enhanced digestion performance in terms of solids destruction and methane generation by THD relative to MAD was achieved, and was largely attributable to the solubilization and subsequent biodegradation of energy-rich substrates within blended primary and secondary sludge. TAD was observed to underperform MAD, especially at elevated temperatures as methanogenic inhibition resulted in the accumulation of headspace hydrogen, thus resulting in poor removal of volatile fatty acids. The thermodynamics of fatty acid metabolism was favorable at each digestion temperature, thus it was concluded that microbial inhibition was the controlling factor in poor thermophilic performance. Inhibition by free unionized ammonia (NH₃) was characterized for THD and MAD biomass. Acetic acid degradation was equally affected over a range of NH₃ concentrations; however, methane generation by THD was less sensitive to ammonia inhibition, thus suggesting that methanogenesis by THD was less dependent on the NH₃-sensitive process of aceticlastic methanogenesis. Total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) and bicarbonate alkalinity were stoichiometrically produced from proteinaceous material during thermal hydrolytic pretreatment and subsequent high solids anaerobic digestion. Combined effects of TAN and high pH resulted in NH₃-inhibition during THD. Kinetic evaluations suggested that a growth rate reduction of approximately 65% was associated with in-situ NH₃ concentrations of the THD reactor. NH₃-inhibition was apparently responsible for a shift in dominant methanogenic community of the aceticlastic Methanosarcina barkeri in MAD to the hydrogenotrophic Methanoculleus bourgensis in THD. A similar shift in methanogenic community was observed between low temperature thermophilic digestion at 47°C, where the dominant order was Methanosarcinales, to high temperature thermophilic digestion at 59°C where the dominant order was Methanobacteriales. These findings support a process-driven pathway shift from aceticlastic to non-aceticlastic methanogenesis between 180 and 290 mg/L NH₃-N. Such a threshold is supported by previous literature related to ammonia tolerance of pure cultures of methanogens and has significant implications for the kinetic design of advanced anaerobic digestion processes. / Ph. D.