A review on biogas upgrading in anaerobic digestion systems treating organic solids and wastewaters via biogas recirculation.

Biogas upgrading is an essential process for efficient and safe utilization of biogas produced from anaerobic digestion (AD), a cost-effective and environmentally friendly technology for bioenergy recovery from organic wastes. Biogas recirculation in AD reactors has been recently reported as a cost-effective and promising method to enhance methane content in biogas. This review aimed to summarize the state-of-the-art of biogas recirculation-based AD systems to better understand the possible mechanisms and main factors relating to in-situ biogas upgrading. It shows that biogas recirculation in the AD reactor can not only enhance methane content via both physicochemical and biological effects, but also help establish a robust AD system with high buffering capacity for highly efficient treatment of various organic wastes. More research works are demanding for a better understanding of the mechanisms and the optimization of the whole AD system, targeting its further development for high-calorie bioenergy production.

Anaerobic co-digestion of corn stover and wastewater from hydrothermal carbonation.

This study aimed to investigate the interactions between wastewater of hydrothermal carbonation (W-HTC) and corn stover (CS) during anaerobic co-digestion. The results showed the maximum cumulative methane production of co-digestion was 280.7 ± 3.2 mL/g VS, and it increased by 5.84% and 10.69% compared with mono-digestion of CS and W-HTC, respectively. Increasing the HTC temperature and excess addition of W-HTC inhibits early and middle stage of co-digestion due to toxic organic inhibitors, and the negative effect of phenols is substantially more than furans. The microbial analysis illustrated the addition of W-HTC can promote the growth of Clostridia and Bacteroidia. The growth of Methanomassiliicoccus and Methanosarcina was more vigorous in most of co-digestions, which was positively correlated with methane production. The study concluded methanogenesis can be enhanced by the co-digestion of W-HTC and CS, which provide optimization of process conditions and some reaction mechanism for application of W-HTC in anaerobic digestion.

Sustainability assessment of biogas production from buffalo grass and dung: biogas purification and bio-fertilizer.

Biomass from wetland aquatic grass and buffalo grass can be exploited for biogas production, because this substrate is plenteous and does not compete with food production. In this study, the grass substrate was physically pretreated by boiling with different retention time to increase its biodegradability and was examined in batch mode. Boiling pretreatment suggested that 100 °C with 2 h retention time was the best condition. The results showed that the optimum grass concentration in the 1:1 ratio of co-digestion mixture with manure produced the highest methane yield. The results suggested that co-digestion of buffalo grass and buffalo dung was a promising approach for improving biogas production. This study was achieved the upgraded biogas through biological purification contained 90.42% CH4 8.04% CO2 1.43% O2 and 0.11% other trace gases-a remarkable performance based on an efficiency criteria. Furthermore, the digestate has high nutrient concentrations that can potentially use as fertilizer.

Batch and semi-continuous anaerobic co-digestion of goose manure with alkali solubilized wheat straw: A case of carbon to nitrogen ratio and organic loading rate regression optimization.

The present study focused on carbon to nitrogen ratio (C/N) and organic loading rate (OLR) optimization of goose manure (GM) and wheat straw (WS). Dealing the anaerobic digestion of poultry manure on industrial scale; the question of optimum C/N (mixing ratio) and OLR (daily feeding concentration) have significant importance still lack in literature. Therefore, Batch and CSTR co-digestion experiments of the GM and WS were carried out at mesophilic condition. The alkali (NaOH) solubilization pretreatment for the WS had greatly enhanced its anaerobic digestibility. The highest methane production was evaluated between the C/N of 20-30 during Batch experimentation while for CSTRs; the second applied OLR of (3g.VS/L.d) was proved as the optimum with maximum methane production capability of 254.65ml/g.VS for reactor B at C/N of 25. The C/N and OLR regression optimization models were developed for their commercial scale usefulness.

Methane enhancement through co-digestion of chicken manure and thermo-oxidative cleaved wheat straw with waste activated sludge: A C/N optimization case.

The present study emphasized the co-digestion of the thermal-H2O2 pretreated wheat straw (WS) and chicken manure (CM) with the waste activated sludge at four levels of C/N (35:1, 30:1, 25:1 and 20:1). All C/N compositions were found significant (P<0.05) to enhance methane generation and process stability during the anaerobic co-digestion of WS and CM. The experimental results revealed that the composition having C/N value of 20:1 was proved as optimum treatment with the methane enhancing capability of 85.11%, CODs removal efficiency of 48.55% and 66.83% VS removal as compared with the untreated WS. The other compositions having C/N of 25:1, 30:1 and 35:1 provided 75.85%, 63.04% and 59.96% enhanced methane respectively as compared with the control. Pretreatment of the WS reduced its C/N value up to 65%. Moreover, to optimize the most suitable C/N composition, the process stability of the co-digestion of WS and CM was deeply monitored.

Methane enhancement through oxidative cleavage and alkali solubilization pre-treatments for corn stover with anaerobic activated sludge.

In the present study, thermo-chemical pre-treatment was adopted to evaluate methane production potential from corn stover by co-digesting it with anaerobic activated sludge. Three chemicals H2O2, Ca(OH)2 and NaOH were selected with two levels of concentration. All thermo-chemical pre-treatments were found significant (P<0.05) to enhance lignocellulosic digestibility and methane production. The results indicated that the methane yield by H2O2-1, H2O2-2, and NaOH-2 treated corn stover were 293.52, 310.50 and 279.42ml/g.VS which were 57.18%, 66.27% and 49.63% higher than the untreated corn stover respectively. In the previous studies pre-treatment time was reported in days but our method had reduced it to about one hour. H2O2-2 and NaOH-2 treatments remained prominent to increase lignocellulosic degradation vigorously up to 45% and 42% respectively. Process biochemistry during the anaerobic digestion process was taken into consideration to optimize the most feasible thermo-chemical pre-treatment for corn stover.

Carbon capture and biogas enhancement by carbon dioxide enrichment of anaerobic digesters treating sewage sludge or food waste.

The increasing concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere and the stringent greenhouse gases (GHG) reduction targets, require the development of CO2 sequestration technologies applicable for the waste and wastewater sector. This study addressed the reduction of CO2 emissions and enhancement of biogas production associated with CO2 enrichment of anaerobic digesters (ADs). The benefits of CO2 enrichment were examined by injecting CO2 at 0, 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 M fractions into batch ADs treating food waste or sewage sludge. Daily specific methane (CH4) production increased 11-16% for food waste and 96-138% for sewage sludge over the first 24h. Potential CO2 reductions of 8-34% for sewage sludge and 3-11% for food waste were estimated. The capacity of ADs to utilise additional CO2 was demonstrated, which could provide a potential solution for onsite sequestration of CO2 streams while enhancing renewable energy production.