The research describes an optimized waste-to-energy technology that utilizes agricultural residues for renewable energy, while reducing global methane emissions and maintaining food security. Laboratory-, pilot- and farm-scale anaerobic batch digesters were evaluated to enhance methane production from the anaerobic digestion of untreated rice straw in dry conditions using a novel co-digestion approach. An existing farm-scale biogas plant loaded with rice straw and piggery wastewater produced 295 MWh in a 422-day digestion cycle. The long acclimation period (approximately 200 days) and low biogas yield (181 LCH4/kgVS) could be enhanced by adding anaerobic sludge from the pulp and paper mill treatment process. In a laboratory setting, the addition of the sludge resulted in a specific methane yield of 335 LCH4/kgVS within 92 days. Hydrolysis of the straw was accelerated, and stable conditions were observed in terms of pH, alkalinity and nutrients. Similar improvements were demonstrated in pilot-scale digesters (1 m3) - a specific methane yield of 231 LCH4/kgVS was achieved in a 93-day digestion cycle with the sludge compared to 189 days without the sludge. Insufficient mixing within the pilot-scale system caused lower overall methane yields than those obtained in the laboratory-scale digesters. If sufficient mixing and mesophilic conditions are maintained within the farm-scale system, the co-digestion of rice straw with pig wastewater and paper mill sludge (wet weight ratio of 1:1.25:0.5) has the potential to reduce the retention time to three months (versus 422 days) and increase methane yields to over 300 LCH4/kgVS
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:CCSD/oai:tel.archives-ouvertes.fr:tel-00995326 |
| Date | 12 December 2013 |
| Creators | Mussoline, Wendy |
| Publisher | Université Paris-Est |
| Source Sets | CCSD theses-EN-ligne, France |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | PhD thesis |
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