Pre-treatment study on two-stage biohydrogen and biomethane productions in a continuous co-digestion process from a mixture of swine manure and pineapple waste

This study involves continuous co-digestion of swine manure and pineapple waste mixture using two-stage anaerobic reactors and examines hydraulic retention time (HRT) and substrate heat pre-treatment. The maximum hydrogen and methane production rates of 1488.62 and 991.57 mL/L/d, respectively, reached optimal HRTs of 4.5 h in the hydrogen production fermenter (HPF) and 9 d in the methane production fermenter (MPF) using heat pre-treatment. Acetic acid is a dominant volatile fatty acid of the soluble metabolites with values 70%–73% under all the tested conditions and increased values under heat pre-treatment and high HRT. Firmicutes and Euryarchaeota are the main bacteria species detected in HPF and MPF, respectively. The optimal total energy of 196.47 kJ/L/d and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency of 90% were obtained by a complete anaerobic co-digestion process at a high substrate concentration of 105 g COD/L and low HRT of 4.5 h. This shows that the two-stage co-digestion process could increase the COD removal efficiency, hydrogen production rate, and net energy gains and produce high quality biogas and significantly reduce fermentation time.     

A pilot study of biohythane production from cornstalk via two-stage anaerobic fermentation

This study aimed to study the feasibility and stability of biohythane production from cornstalk via two-stage anaerobic fermentation without hydrolysis step in a semi-continuous pilot scale system. The present study applied a 1 m³ continuous stirred tank reactor for biohydrogen production and a 0.5 m³ up-flow anaerobic sludge bed for biomethane production. During the entire operation, a hydrogen production yield of 25.02 L/kg TS and hydrogen production rate of 0.46 L/L/d was achieved in first-stage. In addition, a methane yield of 95.38 L/kg TS and methane production rate of 4.06 L/L/d was achieved in second-stage by using the liquid effluent after first-stage. The percentage of hydrogen in the biohythane gas was 18.47% which suitable for vehicle fuel. Moreover, it was feasible to use the solid residue as a growth medium in seedlings to improve energy and carbon recovery. The results suggest that biohythane production from cornstalk could be a promising biofuel avenue.     

Effect of low digestate recirculation ratio on biofuel and bioenergy recovery in a two-stage anaerobic digestion process

A relatively high (0.2–4.3) digestate recirculation ratio (RR) is typically adopted to raise the pH and provide the dark fermentation reactor (DF) with alkalinity and hydrogen-producing microorganisms in a two-stage anaerobic digestion process. This study examined the production of bio-H₂ and bio-CH₄ from readily biodegradable organic waste in a large scale recirculated two-stage thermophilic anaerobic system to determine the effect of low RR on biofuel and bioenergy recovery. The performance of the two-stage system was evaluated at 2 hydraulic retention times (HRT) (1.1 and 2.5 d) in DF and 4 RR (0, 0.11, 0.18 and 0.25). The pH in DF was not controlled and ranged from 3.8 to 4.2. Hydrogen yield was negatively affected by digestate recirculation, while CH₄ yield, as well as H₂ and CH₄ production rates, first tended to increase and then decrease with increasing RR. Overall, biofuel and bioenergy were best recovered at an RR of 0.11, namely 1.48 L H₂/L/d, 0.88 L CH₄/L/d, 106.2 mL H₂/g VS_init.,161.3 mL CH₄/g VS_init., 7.7 kJ/g VS_init. and 88.2 kJ/L/d were obtained depending on HRT in DF. It has been shown that a low RR can improve the performance of the two-stage anaerobic digestion process.     

An integrated approach to energy production and nutrient recovery through anaerobic digestion of Vetiveria zizanoides

This paper reports on experimental results used to verify the applicability of Vetiveria zizanoides (VZ) as a virtuous energetic crop. VZ produces biogas through its anaerobic digestion, and its nutrient content can be recovered through reuse, after digestion, as an agricultural amendment. Biomethanation tests were conducted with fresh and pretreated VZ, and the results of these tests were compared with those from the anaerobic degradation of common garden grass. Specific methane production was found to be around 650 Nm³ per ton of total organic carbon (TOC) for Vetiveria zizanoides, and around 510 Nm³ per ton of TOC for common grass, with no significant improvement after thermal pretreatment. Germination tests conducted with the digested VZ showed that the produced digestate fulfills the requirements of a fertilizer.     

Energy analysis of the system of two-stage anaerobic processing of liquid organic waste with production of hydrogen- and methane-containing biogases

In recent years, public attention has been increasingly attracted to solving two inextricably linked problems - preventing the depletion of natural resources and protecting the environment from anthropogenic pollution. The annual consumption of livestock waste for biogas production is about 240 thousand m³ per year, which is 0.17% of the total manure produced at Russian agricultural enterprises. At present, the actual use of organic waste potentially suitable for biogas production is 2–3 orders of magnitude lower than the existing potential for organic waste. Currently, hydrogen energy is gaining immense popularity in the world due to the problem of depletion of non-renewable energy sources - hydrocarbons, and environmental pollution caused by their increasing consumption. Of particular interest is the dark process of producing hydrogen-containing biogas in the processing of organic waste under anaerobic conditions, which allows you to take advantage of both energy production and solving the problem of organic waste disposal. An energy analysis of a two-stage anaerobic liquid organic waste processing system with the production of hydrogen- and methane-containing biogases based on experimental data obtained in a laboratory plant with increased volume reactors was performed. The energy efficiency of the system is in the range of 1.91–2.74. Maximum energy efficiency was observed with a hydraulic retention time of 2.5 days in a dark fermentation reactor. The cost of electricity to produce 1 m³ of hydrogen was 1.093 kW·h with a hydraulic retention time of 2.5 days in the dark fermentation reactor. When the hydraulic retention time in the dark fermentation reactor was 1 day, the specific (in ratio to the processing rate of organic waste) energy costs to produce of 1 m³ of hydrogen were minimal in the considered hrt range, and amounted to 26 (W/m³ of hydrogen)/(m³ of waste/day). Thus, the system of two-stage anaerobic processing of liquid organic waste to produce hydrogen and methane-containing biogases is an energy-efficient way to both produce hydrogen and process organic waste.     

Hydrogen and methane potential based on the nature of food waste materials in a two-stage thermophilic fermentation process

The purpose of this study is to investigate the biological H₂ and CH₄ potential based on the nature of organic waste materials in a two-stage thermophilic fermentation process. Three varieties of actual waste specifically potato, kitchen garbage and bean curd manufacturing waste (okara) were selected. The production rates for H₂ and CH₄ were as follows: potato, 2.1 and 1.2 l/l/d; garbage, 1.7 and 1.5 l/l/d; okara, 0.4 and 1.4 l/l/d in the continuous processes. The H₂ and CH₄ yields were 20–85 ml H₂/g VS_added and 329–364 ml CH₄/g VS_added, respectively. The H₂ yield increased and the CH₄ yield decreased in the order of potato, kitchen garbage and okara. The H₂ yield was shown to be not only dependent on the proportion of carbohydrate but also on the hydrolysis pH of the organic waste, which was influenced by the nature of the organic waste materials. Higher yields of H₂ or CH₄ were obtained when the hydrolysis pH of the organic waste was close to the optimum pH range of H₂-producing bacteria or methanogenic archaea in the two-stage fermentation processes.     

Biohydrogen production in the two-stage process of anaerobic bioconversion of organic matter of liquid organic waste with recirculation of digister effluent

At present, hydrogen energy is gaining immense popularity in the world due to the problem of depletion of non-renewable energy sources, hydrocarbons, and environmental pollution caused by their growing consumption. Of particular interest is the dark process of producing hydrogen-containing biogas in the processing of organic waste under anaerobic conditions which allows to take advantage of both energy production and solving the problem of recycling organic waste. The article describes in detail an experimental plant for investigating a two-stage process of anaerobic bioconversion of organic matter of liquid organic waste and setting up an experiment to study the effect of recirculation of the methantenk effluent into an anaerobic bioreactor for the production of biohydrogen. Moreover, experimental studies were carried out in a continuous mode in reactors with increased volume. The average specific yield of biohydrogen (per kilogram of initial organic matter (OM)) during recirculation of the methantenk effluent increased by 4% (from 0.1046 to 0.1087 m³/(day 1 kg of OM_in)). In addition, recirculation of the methantenk effluent to the biohydrogen production reactor during two-stage anaerobic bioconversion allowed us to reduce fluctuations in the output of biohydrogen from the reactor. At the same time, there was no methanogenic activity in the anaerobic bioreactor for the production of biohydrogen. The self-stabilizing pH level in the anaerobic bioreactor for producing biohydrogen was less than 4.5 (3.94 without effluent recirculation and 3.88 with recirculation), however, there was no inhibition of hydrogen formation. Thus, the use of recirculation of the methantenk effluent into the anaerobic bioreactor for producing biohydrogen can enhance the efficiency of the two-stage anaerobic bioconversion of organic waste while maintaining the stability of the process.     

Pilot-scale of biohythane production from palm oil mill effluent by two-stage thermophilic anaerobic fermentation

The pilot-scale of two-stage thermophilic (55 °C) for biohythane production from palm oil mill effluent (POME) was operated at hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 2 days and organic loading rate (OLR) of 27.5 gCOD/L⋅d) for first stage and HRT of 10 days and OLR of 5.5 gCOD/L⋅d for second stage. Biohythane production rate was 1.93 L-gas/L⋅d with biogas containing 11% H₂, 37% CO₂, and 52% CH₄. Recirculation of methane effluent mixed with POME at a ratio of 1:1 can control pH in the first stage at an optimal range of 5.0–6.5. Microbial community in hydrogen stage dominated by Thermoanaerobacterium sp., while methane stage dominated by Methanosarcina sp. The H₂/CH₄ ratio of biohythane was 0.13–0.18 which suitable for vehicle fuel. Biohythane production from POME could be promising cleaner biofuel with flexible and controllable H₂/CH₄ ratio.     

Green biohydrogen production in a Co-digestion process from mixture of high carbohydrate food waste and cattle/chicken manure digestate

This study was investigated biohydrogen production on the effects of different ratio of food waste to seed digestate and pH value from co-digestion process in anaerobic reactor. The seed digestate was mixture of cattle manure 45%, corn silage 25%, chicken manure 15%, and olive pomace 15% which was collected from the biogas plant in central Italy. It was found that the peaks of total biogas and the biohydrogen productions were 1355 ± 26 and 436 ± 10 mL whereas the biohydrogen yield was 50.4 mL/g-VS (45.8 mL/g-COD) with 43.33% COD removal rate, the bacteria to substrate volatile solids (VS) ratio was 2:1 where seed digestate to food waste was 6:4 under pH 6.5. As a consequence, food waste with a high COD concentration can be adapted C/N ratio by the cattle manure and chicken manure in the seed digestate which resulted in a high biohydrogen production. The food waste co-digestion system mixed with biogas plant digestate is one of approach to increase total biogas production.     

Effect of agitation pretreatment on anaerobic digestion of swine manure

This study evaluated the effect of mechanical agitation pretreatment on anaerobic digestion (AD) of swine manure (SM). The results showed a remarkable increase in soluble polysaccharides, soluble proteins, and soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) by 82.42%, 121.17%, and 114.89%, respectively, after the SM being agitated for 22 h. No improvement in the volatile fatty acids (VFAs) yield was observed during the agitation pretreatment. Apparently, agitation significantly accelerated the hydrolysis of SM, while it did not seem to enhance the acidification step. Batch AD experiments showed an improved accumulative methane yield by 77.89% with the pretreated SM compared to raw SM.     

Effect of inoculum pre-treatment on mesophilic hydrogen and methane production from food waste using two-stage anaerobic digestion

Two-stage anaerobic digestion of food waste was performed using four different inoculum pre-treatment methods to enrich hydrogen (H₂) producing bacteria from sludge. The pretreatments used in this study included heat shock, alkaline treatment, aeration, and a novel pretreatment using waste frying oil (WFO). Alkaline pretreatment and aeration did not completely inhibit methanogens in the first stage while no methane (CH₄) was detected in the reactors cultivated either with heat shock or WFO-pretreated inocula. The highest H₂ and CH₄ yields (76.1 and 598.2 mL/gVS, respectively) were obtained using the inoculum pretreated with WFO. The highest total energy yield (21.96 kJ/gVS) and total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiencies (95.77%) were obtained using inoculum pretreatment with WFO. The total energy yield trend obtained using the different pretreatments was as follows: WFO > alkaline > heat > aeration > control.     

Effect of pH on continuous biohydrogen production from liquid swine manure with glucose supplement using an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor

pH is considered as one of the most important factors governing the hydrogen fermentation process. In this project, five pH levels, ranging from 4.4 to 5.6 at 0.3 increments, were tested to evaluate the pH effect on hydrogen production from swine manure supplemented with glucose in an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor system with 16 h of hydraulic retention time (HRT). The optimal hydrogen yield (1.50 mol H₂/mol glucose) was achieved at pH 5.0 when the maximum production rate of 2.25 L/d/L was obtained. Continuous hydrogen production was achieved for over 3 weeks for pH 5.0, 4.7, and 4.4, with no significant methane produced. However, as pH increased to 5.3 and 5.6, methane production was observed in the biogas with concurrent reductions in hydrogen production, indicating that methanogens could become increasingly activated for pH 5.3 or higher. Acetate, propionate, butyrate, valerate, and ethanol were the main aqueous products whose distribution was significantly affected by pH as well.     

Hydrogen–methane production from swine manure: Effect of pretreatment and VFAs accumulation on gas yield

A two-phase anaerobic process to produce hydrogen and methane from swine manure was investigated, using pretreated sludge with heat, acid and alkali treatment as inoculum. The relative order of pretreatment methods of H₂ productivity effectiveness and CH₄ productivity effectiveness produced by the residua of the first phase was heat treatment > alkali treatment > acid treatment. When the inoculum sludge was heat-treated at 80°C for 30 min, the H₂ and CH₄ production rate was the highest of 36.6, 201.7 ml (g TS)_added⁻¹. There were significant correlations between biogas production and accumulation of acetic acid and butyric acids. When propionic acid and total VFA concentrations reached about 2850 mg L⁻¹ and 10.0 g L⁻¹, respectively, the average H₂ production rate and H₂ content decreased from 7.6 ml d⁻¹(g VS)_added⁻¹ and 55.3% to 1.4 ml d⁻¹(g VS)_added⁻¹ and 43.2%, respectively. The activity of methanogenic bacteria was inhibited to a significant extent when the total VFA concentration was above 10.0 g L⁻¹, but this inhibitory effect weakened when the VFA concentration fell to 6200–8500 mg L⁻¹. Correspondingly, average CH₄ production rate increased from 4.0 ml d⁻¹(g TS)_added⁻¹ to 12.5 ml d⁻¹(g TS)_added⁻¹. Propionic acid was degraded rapidly only when acetic and butyric acid concentrations dropped to 2500 mg L⁻¹ and 1000 mg L⁻¹, respectively.     

Comprehensive study on a two-stage anaerobic digestion process for the sequential production of hydrogen and methane from cost-effective molasses

Two-stage anaerobic digestion process has been frequently applied to the sequential production of hydrogen and methane from various organic substrates/wastes. In this study, a cost-effective byproduct of food industry, molasses, was used as a sole carbon source for the two-stage biogas-producing process. The two-stage process consisted of two reactor parts named as the first-stage hydrogenic reactor (HR) operated at pH 5.5 and 35°C and the second-stage methanogenic reactor (MR) at pH 7.0 and 35°C. Microbial community analysis revealed that Clostridium butyricum was the major hydrogen-producing bacteria and methanogens consisted of hydrotrophic bacteria like Methanobacterium beijingense and acetotrophic bacteria like Methanothrix soehngenii. In the first-stage process, hydrogen could be efficiently produced from diluted molasses with the highest production rate of 2.8 (±0.22) L-H₂/L-reactor/d at the optimum HRT of 6 h. In the second-stage process, methane could be also produced from residual sugars and VFAs with a production rate of 1.48 (±0.09) L-CH₄/L-reactor/d at the optimum HRT of 6 d, at which overall COD removal efficiency of the two-stage process was determined to be 79.8%. Finally, economic assessment supported that cost-effective molasses was a potent carbon source for the sequential production of hydrogen and methane by two-stage anaerobic digestion process.     

Production of biocrude-oil from swine manure by fast pyrolysis and analysis of its characteristics

All around the world research is being conducted in the field of renewable energy due to the depletion of fossil fuels and the problem of global warming. Fast pyrolysis, an optimal technology for converting biomass to liquid fuel, enables lignocellulosic raw materials such as wood, switch grass and rice straw to be converted to biocrude-oil. Even though many studies on these materials have already been conducted, the high production costs and unstable supply thereof have frequently been pointed out as significant problems. Thus, this study considers the use of another feedstock to solve such disadvantages and to raise the recycling rate of organic wastes simultaneously. Swine manure was selected as an alternative feedstock due to the existence of a stable supply from the livestock farming industry. A bubbling-fluidized-bed reactor was used in the present study for fast pyrolysis. The yield and characteristics of biocrude-oil were investigated at various reaction temperatures. The optimum temperature for maximum biocruce-oil yield was found to be 600 °C with the highest yield of 18.48 wt% and HHV of 13.59 MJ/kg. Due to its low yield and high water content, swine manure is suggested to be blended with other types of biomass as a means of higher yield and quality of biocrude-oil.     

Improvement in energy recovery from Chlorella sp. biomass by integrated dark-photo biohydrogen production and dark fermentation-anaerobic digestion processes

Chlorella sp. biomass was used as the sole substrate for the production of hydrogen and methane through integrated dark fermentation (DF) and photo-fermentation (PF), and DF and anaerobic digestion (AD) processes. Prior to use in fermentations, the biomass was pretreated by acid-hydrothermal method, which yielded a maximum reducing sugar yield of 162.9 ± 4.2 mg g-biomass⁻¹. The use of the microalgal hydrolysate to produce hydrogen by DF gave a hydrogen yield (HY) of 47.2 ± 1.1 mL g-volatile-solids⁻¹ (VS). The subsequent use of the hydrogenic effluent in PF gave a HY of 125.0 ± 1.5 mL g-VS⁻¹, while AD of the hydrogenic effluent gave a methane yield of 152.8 ± 1.3 mL g-VS⁻¹. The total energy yield attained by the use of DF alone, the integrated DF-PF, and DF-AD processes were 0.51, 1.86 and 5.98 kJ g-VS⁻¹, respectively. These results indicate that the integrated DF-AD process was effective in recovering energy from Chlorella sp. biomass. However, an energy balance analysis indicated that the process was not energetically feasible due to the high energy demand for the acid-hydrothermal pretreatment.     

Effect of temperature on anaerobic fermentative hydrogen gas production from feedlot cattle manure using mixed microflora

Hydrogen production from the anaerobic fermentation of feedlot cattle manure was examined in batch cultures over a temperature range from 36 to 60 °C at a pH of 5.2. The amount of hydrogen produced increased with temperature to a maximum of 65 L H₂ kg TS⁻¹ at 52 °C. At temperatures > 52 °C, acetate was the main volatile fatty acid (VFA) accumulated, while at <52 °C butyrate accumulated the most. Formate was detected in the 56 and 60 °C treatments but was absent in all others. Thermophilic conditions resulted in the highest hydrogen production rates, with maximum hydrogen production occurring 52 °C. Changing incubation temperature by small (4 °C) increments up or down from 52 °C resulted in changes in the metabolic flux (conversion of substrate to VFA and gaseous products) of the anaerobic digestion system. These findings indicate that the hydrogen production potential of anaerobic systems utilizing heat treated cattle manure as inoculum is affected greatly by incubation temperature.     

Optimization of conditions for hydrogen production from complex dairy wastewater by anaerobic sludge using desirability function approach

Present study deals with the multiple-response optimization for biohydrogen production using anaerobic sludge and outstanding approach to overcome the drawbacks of conventional response surface methodology (RSM). Dairy wastewater was used as source in batch fermentation was followed for this study. Response surface methodology (RSM), based on a three level, four variable Box–Behnken design, was employed to obtain the best possible combination of substrate concentration, pH, COD/N ratio and COD/P ratio for maximum H₂ yield (HY) and specific hydrogen production rate (SHPR). Experimental data were evaluated by applying RSM integrating a desirability function approach. The optimum H₂ yield and SHPR conditions were: substrate concentration 15.3 g COD/L, pH 5.5, COD/N ratio 100.5 and COD/P ratio 120 with maximum overall desirability D of 0.94. The confirmation experiment under these optimal condition showed a HY and SHPR of 13.54 mmol H₂/g COD and 29.91 mmol H₂/g-VSS.d, respectively. This was only 0.22% and 0.20%, respectively, different from the predicted values, suggesting that the desirability function approach with RSM was a useful technique to get the maximum H₂ yield and SHPR simultaneously.