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Title: Valorisation of used cooking oil sludge by codigestion with swine manure

Journal Article · · Waste Management

Highlights: • Anaerobic codigestion of UCO sludge and swine manure was successful at 50 d HRT. • VFA build-up was present during the reactor start-up but were reduced after 50 d. • CH{sub 4} yield was 326 l/kg VS{sub feed}, decreasing HRT to 30 d resulted in poor performance. • Digestate at 50 d HRT was unstable although the load applied to the reactor was low. - Abstract: The addition of lipid wastes to the digestion of swine manure was studied as a means of increasing biogas production. Lipid waste was obtained from a biodiesel plant where used cooking oil is the feedstock. Digestion of this co-substrate was proposed as a way of valorising residual streams from the process of biodiesel production and to integrate the digestion process into the biorefinery concept. Batch digestion tests were performed at different co-digesting proportions obtaining as a result an increase in biogas production with the increase in the amount of co-substrate added to the mixture. Semi-continuous digestion was studied at a 7% (w/w) mass fraction of total solids. Co-digestion was successful at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 50 d but a decrease to 30 d resulted in a decrease in specific gas production and accumulation of volatile and long chain fatty acids. The CH{sub 4} yield obtained was 326 ± 46 l/kg VS{sub feed} at an HRT of 50 d, while this value was reduced to 274 ± 43 l/kg VS{sub feed} when evaluated at an HRT of 30 d. However these values were higher than the one obtained under batch conditions (266 ± 40 l/kg VS{sub feed}), thus indicating the need of acclimation to the co-substrate. Despite of operating at low organic loading rate (OLR), measurements from respirometry assays of digestate samples (at an HRT of 50 d) suggested that the effluent could not be directly applied to the soil as fertiliser and might have a negative effect over soil or crops.

OSTI ID:
22443586
Journal Information:
Waste Management, Vol. 34, Issue 8; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2014 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0956-053X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English