Anaerobic digestion of municipal, industrial, and livestock wastes for energy recovery and disposal
- Biothane Corporation, Camden, NJ (United States)
- Resource Development Associates, Washington, DC (United States)
The degradation of carbonaceous organic material by anaerobic bacteria leads to the production of methane gas (biogas) at the theoretical stoichiometric conversion rate of 0.35-cubic meters of methane per kilogram of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) reasonably close proximity to the site of this digestion process. The untreated biogas generated from anaerobic digestion typically contains from 55% to 75% methane content, with the balance consisting mainly of carbon dioxide and a small, but important, amount of hydrogen sulfide. The untreated biogas is normally saturated with water vapor at the temperature of the digestion process which typically is in the mesophilic range 25 to 38 degrees Celsius. This overview paper describes the types of anaerobic technologies which are presently used for the digestion of various type of municipal, industrial and livestock manure wastes, summarizes the principal developments which have taken place in the field during the past several years, and discusses the energy recovery economics for each of the three usage applications. The paper stratifies the use of anaerobic digestion technology for the treatment of wastewaters from industry (an application which has increased dramatically during the past decade) by geographical region, by industry type, very various categories of food processing, and by technology type, in all cases taking account of system size to emphasize the economics of energy production.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 115294
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-200-8098; CONF-9508104-; ON: DE95009230; TRN: 95:006736-0075
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. meeting on biomass of the Americas, Portland, OR (United States), 21-24 Aug 1995; Other Information: PBD: [1995]; Related Information: Is Part Of Second biomass conference of the Americas: Energy, environment, agriculture, and industry. Proceedings; PB: 1741 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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