Examining a hybrid plug-flow pilot reactor for anaerobic digestion of farm-based biodegradable solids

Plug-flow digesters with periodic loading mechanism are more enthusiastic than fully mechanized digestion plants for the majority of small or medium scale farms according to the costs and operational complexities. A dual-compartment plug-flow reactor equipped with a passive heating system was designed and experimentally operated by purpose of demonstrating a simple and low cost technology for handling the biodegradable agricultural wastes. The reactor was successfully started up with pig feces as feedstock under a quasi-continuous loading and semi-dry condition with an average total solids content of 12.8% inside the digester and an average organic loading rate of 2.06kg-VS/[m[3].d]. The start-up phase was followed by co-digestion of pig feces and pre-treated cotton stalk. Even though the digester actually worked at a temperature range 12 to 30% below the optimal mesophilic level, acceptable rates of methane generation and VS destruction were observed. The biogas and methane yield were measured for single digestion stage as 0.332 and 0.202 m[3] [kg-added VS] and for co-digestion stage as 0.482 and 0.325 m[3] [kg-added VS] respectively. The cumulative biogas production data demonstrated a reasonable correlation [R[2] over 0.99] with a simplified consecutive kinetic model