Using a recirculating anaerobic dynamic membrane bioreactor to treat hydrothermal liquefaction aqueous by-product

Fonoll Almansa, Xavier; Baydoun, Mohamad; Patel, Avi; Thorson, Michael R.; Schmidt, Andy J.; Norton, John W.

doi:10.3389/fceng.2025.1515470

Using a recirculating anaerobic dynamic membrane bioreactor to treat hydrothermal liquefaction aqueous by-product

Journal Article · Thu Apr 10 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Frontiers in Chemical Engineering

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/fceng.2025.1515470· OSTI ID:2574204

Fonoll Almansa, Xavier ^[1]; Baydoun, Mohamad ^[2]; Patel, Avi ^[2]; Thorson, Michael R. ^[3]; Schmidt, Andy J. ^[3]; Norton, John W. ^[2]

Great Lakes Water Authority, Detroit, MI (United States); Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)
Great Lakes Water Authority, Detroit, MI (United States)
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) has the potential to improve resource recovery at water resource recovery facilities (WRRF), but the production of a high-strength aqueous by-product (HTL-aq) is hampering HTL implementation. The formation of biofilms in anaerobic digestion have been shown to be useful when degrading recalcitrant compounds present in HTL-aq due to the promotion of direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) and increase in the microbial activity of syntrophic and methanogenic populations. The Recirculating Anaerobic Dynamic Membrane Bioreactor (RAnDMBr) was able to degrade 65% of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) at 1.5 ± 0.2 g COD LR⁻¹ day⁻¹ and 5.6 ± 2.3 days producing 0.19 ± 0.02 LCH4 gCOD_fed⁻¹. However, adding a solution rich in nutrients on a daily basis was necessary. The system presented microbial populations able to degrade aromatic compounds (i.e., Anaerolinaceae) to perform DIET and syntrophy (i.e., Syntrophus) and methanogens (i.e., Methanobacterium and Methanosarcina) with the biofilm having a higher relative abundance of methanogens than the suspended biomass. Increasing the organic loading rate to 2 g COD LR⁻¹ day⁻¹ caused inhibition in the system by accumulation of volatile fatty acids, probably due to an increase in phenol, N-heterocyclic and aromatic compounds. Overall, this research shows that the RAnDMBr can be used to treat HTL-aq in WRRF without inhibition at OLRs of 1.5 ± 0.2 g COD LR⁻¹ day⁻¹ or lower, making HTL-aq treatment more feasible. Future research should focus co-digestion of HTL-aq with a co-substrate rich in nutrients and on fouling mitigation strategies that will allow to increase the recirculation ratio to promote advective substrate transport through the biofilm.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830

OSTI ID:: 2574204

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA--208192

Journal Information:: Frontiers in Chemical Engineering, Journal Name: Frontiers in Chemical Engineering Vol. 7; ISSN 2673-2718

Publisher:: Frontiers Media S.A.Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Related Subjects

AD
Anerobic Digestion
HTL
Hydrothermal
Recirculating Anaerobic Dynamic Membrane Bioreactor
anaerobic dynamic membrane bioreactor
aqueous by-product
aqueous product
biofilm
biogas
hydrothermal liquefaction
processing liquefaction

Using a recirculating anaerobic dynamic membrane bioreactor to treat hydrothermal liquefaction aqueous by-product

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