The principles behind anaerobic digestion are fairly well understood, but the limits of application of each digester design are not known. Because there are significant differences in the properties of the many wastewaters requiring treatment optimal anaerobic digester performance requires the matching of feed characteristics to a digester design and mode of operation. No consensus has yet emerged on digester design, operating conditions or feed/digester match-ups.
In this study, three bench scale retained biomass anaerobic digester designs were examined for their response to a sequence of varied hydraulic retention times (HRTs) and influent wastewater concentrations. The digester designs studied were the upflow anaerobic filter, the upflow anaerobic expanded bed and the upflow anaerobic sludge bed. The wastewater was screened and diluted dairy cow manure obtained from the UBC dairy barn. The parameters monitored included the total and soluble chemical oxygen demand (TCOD and SCOD), volatile and suspended solids (VS and SS), total volatile fatty acids (VFAs), total Kjeldahl and ammonia nitrogen (TKN and NH₃-N), pH, biogas production, and the methane (CH₄) and carbon dioxide (C0₂) content of the biogas.
Wastewater treatment efficiencies, measured in terms of TCOD, SCOD, VS, and TVFA removals, and methane productivity and methane yield for each of the digester designs were examined for the range of the operating conditions.
The anaerobic filter digester effected a mean TCOD removal efficiency of 47% ± 14% at a mean 4.0 day HRT, 51% ± 9% at a mean 2.3 day HRT and 35% ± 11% at a mean 1.3 day HRT. The expanded bed digester effected a mean TCOD removal of 45% ± 15% at a mean 4.3 day HRT, 38% ± 12% at a mean 2.5 day HRT and 28% ± 9% at a mean 1.3 day HRT. The sludge bed digester effected a mean TCOD removal of 53% ± 9% at a mean 3.8 day HRT, 45% ± 12% at a mean 2.2 day HRT and 32% ± 10% at a mean 1.2 day HRT. For all three digesters, the difference in the treatment efficiency over the range of HRTs tested, from 5 to 1.25 days was not in proportion to the change in HRT. Methane productivity, measured against either the removal or addition of substrate in terms of TCOD, SCOD, VS and TVFA, demonstrated considerable variability. Methane production increased with both substrate addition and substrate removal. Methane yield increased with increasing HRT. The sludge bed digester generally exhibited the greatest but most variable methane yields. It produced 0.095 L CH₄/g VS added at a mean 3.8 day HRT and 0.037 L CH₄/g VS added at a mean 1.2 day HRT. The anaerobic filter delivered the greatest methane yield at the intermediate HRT, 0.044 L CH₄/g VS added at a mean 2.3 day HRT. The expanded bed demonstrated low methane yields over the range of feed strengths and HRTs tested.
Biogas composition averaged 62.1% methane and 17.1% carbon dioxide for the anaerobic filter, 43.6% methane and 5.3% carbon dioxide for the expanded bed. and 61.1% methane and 18.9% carbon dioxide for the sludge bed. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/26740 |
| Date | January 1987 |
| Creators | Stephenson, Robert John |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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