Controlling the pH of acid cheese whey in a two-stage anaerobic digester with sodium hydroxide
- Dalhousie Univ., Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada). Biological Engineering Dept.
Anaerobic digestion of cheese whey offers a two-fold benefit: pollution potential reduction and biogas production. The biogas, as an energy source, could be used to reduce the consumption of traditional fuels in the cheese plant. However, as a result of little or no buffering capacity of whey, the pH of the anaerobic digester drops drastically and the process is inhibited. In this study, the effect of controlling the pH of the second chamber of a two-stage, 150 L anaerobic digester operating on cheese whey on the quality and quantity of biogas and the pollution potential reduction, was investigated using sodium hydroxide. The digester was operated at a temperature of 35 C and a hydraulic retention time of 15 days for three runs (no pH control, pH control with no reseeding, and ph control with reseeding) each lasting 50 days. The results indicated that operating the digester without pH control resulted in a low pH (3.3) which inhibited the methanogenic bacteria. The inhibition was irreversible and the digester did not recover (no methane production) when the pH was restored to 7.0 without reseeding, as the observed increased gas production was a false indication of recovery because the gas was mainly carbon dioxide. The addition of base resulted in a total alkalinity of 12,000 mg/L as CaCO{sub 3}. When the system was reseeded and the pH controlled, the total volatile acid concentration was 15,100 mg/L (as acetic acid), with acetic (28%), propionic (21%), butyric (25%), valeric (8%), and caproic (15%) acids as the major constituents. The biogas production was 62.6 L/d (0.84 m{sup 3}/m{sup 3}/d) and the methane content was 60.7%. Reductions of 27.3, 30.4 and 23.3% in the total solids, chemical oxygen demand and total kjeldahl nitrogen were obtained, respectively. The ammonium nitrogen content increased significantly (140%).
- OSTI ID:
- 347928
- Journal Information:
- Energy Sources, Vol. 21, Issue 6; Other Information: PBD: Jul 1999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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