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Title: Characterization and environmental studies of Pompano Beach anaerobic digestion facility. Semi-annual report

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5257068· OSTI ID:5257068

Anaerobic digestion of municipal waste has been demonstrated to be feasible in bench scale experiments by Pfeffer (1974). Approximately, 50% reduction in mass and production of 6000 ft/sup 3/ of gas/ton have been estimated. The gas composition is estimated to be 50% methane and 50% carbon monoxide. The technical and economic feasibility of anaerobic digestion with an ultimate objective of commercialization are discussed. A plant has been built at Pompano Beach, Florida on an existing shredding and landfill operation site. The plant design capacity is 100 tons/day. Two digesters have been constructed to be used in parallel. The process consists of primary shredding, metal separation, secondary shredding, air classification and digestion of light fraction. Sewage sludge was used to seed the initial mixture in the digester. The output slurry is vacuum filtered and the filter cake disposed on an existing landfill. The filtrate is recycled. Excess filtrate is sprayed on the landfill. At present the output gas is being flared. A flow chart for the plant is presented. It is imperative that environmental investigations be conducted on new energy technology prior to commercialization. A project was initiated to characterize all input and output streams and to assess the potential for ground water contamination by landfill disposal of effluents. Detailed chemical, biological and physical characterization efforts supported by leaching and modelling studies are being conducted to achieve the stated objectives. Some mutagenic studies were also conducted. The environmental investigations were started in August 1978. Sengupta et al (1979a) reported the first year's efforts.

Research Organization:
Miami Univ., Coral Gables, FL (USA). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AS05-78EV10133
OSTI ID:
5257068
Report Number(s):
DOE/EV/10133-T1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English