Characterization and environmental studies on anaerobic digestion of municipal solid wastes: Pompano Beach plant. Final report

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1983

OSTI ID:5734475

Sengupta, S; Wong, K F.V.; Nemerow, N; Strietfeld, M; Narasimhan, R; Tilles, A

The purpose of this program is to evaluate and verify the technical and economical feasibiilty of the solid waste to methane fermentation process. Since anaerobic fermentation of solid waste materials has not been demonstrated on a large scale, there is a definite risk factor that the system will not perform as current research suggests. The proof of concept plant was built on an existing shredding and landfill site at Pompano Beach, Florida. Two digesters were built with a total capacity of 90 Mg/day of solid waste. Municipal solid wastes contain numerous substances of potential environmental concern. While some understanding of the composition of raw municipal waste and its leachate products is available, no information regarding characteristics of solid, liquid and gaseous outputs from anaerobic digestion exists. The areas of environmental concerns identified were: output gas quality, leachate (filter cake and filtrate) to groundwater system, wash water streams, filter cake, and filtrate. In order to characterize the effluent streams, the following sampling sites were chosen: air classified heavy fraction, air classified light fraction, digested slurry, output gas, filter cake, filtrate, wash water input, and wash water effluent. The technical approach consisted of physical, chemical, and biological characterization of all outputs at the plant. Analyses for major, minor and trace compounds of potential environmental concern were conducted. Relevant regulatory standards were recognized and searches for compounds on EPA priority pollutant list and carciongen list were conducted. The ultimate aim was to quantitatively relate contaminant potential with plant operating parameters. Some mutagenic studies were conducted. A significant part of the technical approach relates to the development of predictive criterion for pollutant migration by leaching and modeling studies.

• Research Organization: Miami Univ., Coral Gables, FL (USA). Resource Recovery Group
• DOE Contract Number: AS05-78EV10133
• OSTI ID: 5734475
• Report Number(s): DOE/EV/10133-T5; ON: DE84001895
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
090122* -- Hydrocarbon Fuels-- Preparation from Wastes or Biomass-- (1976-1989)
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320604 -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Municipalities & Community Systems-- Municipal Waste Management-- (1980-)
510500 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Site Resource & Use Studies-- (-1989)
520500 -- Environment
Aquatic-- Site Resource & Use Studies-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ALKANES
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION
BIOCONVERSION
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CHEMICAL EFFLUENTS
DATA
DIGESTION
DISPERSIONS
ENERGY FACILITIES
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FEDERAL REGION IV
FLORIDA
GASEOUS WASTES
GROUND WATER
HYDROCARBONS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INFORMATION
LEACHATES
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
METHANE
MIXTURES
MONITORING
MUNICIPAL WASTES
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PROCESSING
PRODUCTION
RECOVERY
RESOURCE RECOVERY FACILITIES
SANITARY LANDFILLS
SLURRIES
SOLID WASTES
SOLUTIONS
SUSPENSIONS
USA
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTE PROCESSING PLANTS
WASTES
WATER