TY - JOUR
T1 - Performance of an anaerobic fluidized bed bioreactor (AnFBR) for digestion of primary municipal wastewater treatment biosolids and bioethanol thin stillage
AU - Andalib, Mehran
AU - Elbeshbishy, Elsayed
AU - Mustafa, Nizar
AU - Hafez, Hisham
AU - Nakhla, George
AU - Zhu, Jesse
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge GreenField Ethanol Inc. (Chatham, ON, Canada), Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Lystek International (Cambridge, ON), and the Federal Development Agency for Southwestern Ontario for their support and interest in this project.
PY - 2014/11
Y1 - 2014/11
N2 - The primary objective of this work was to investigate and compare the treatability of very high suspended solids with different biodegradable particulate fractions and COD fractionation, thin stillage (a by-product from the corn ethanol industry) as well as primary sludge from municipal wastewater treatment, using an anaerobic fluidized bed bioreactor (AnFBR) employing US Mesh 30×40 zeolite with a diameter of (dm) in the range of 425-610μm and specific surface area (SSA) of 26.5m2/g as the carrier media. Each experimental run lasted over a six-month period. Due to the long-term impact of accumulation of inert suspended solids in the AnFBR and potential active biomass washout leading to failure, treatability of high suspended-solid streams can be very challenging. Despite the very high strength of thin stillage and primary sludge with chemical oxygen demand of 130,000mg TCOD/L and 42,000mg TCOD/L respectively and suspended solids of 47,000mg TSS/L and 34,000mg TSS/L, the AnFBR showed, up to 88% and 82% TCOD and 78% and 82% TSS removal efficiencies from thin stillage and primary sludge respectively at very high organic and solids loading rates (OLR and SLR) of 29kg COD/m3d and 9.5kg COD/m3d and 10.5kg TSS/m3d and 10.3kg TSS/m3d respectively at hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3.5 and 4 days. Maximum methane production yields of up to 0.31LCH4/gCOD and 0.25LCH4/gCOD were achieved for thin stillage and primary sludge respectively corresponding to biogas production rate per reactor volume of 15.8Lgas/Lreactord and 1.22LCH4/Lreactord.
AB - The primary objective of this work was to investigate and compare the treatability of very high suspended solids with different biodegradable particulate fractions and COD fractionation, thin stillage (a by-product from the corn ethanol industry) as well as primary sludge from municipal wastewater treatment, using an anaerobic fluidized bed bioreactor (AnFBR) employing US Mesh 30×40 zeolite with a diameter of (dm) in the range of 425-610μm and specific surface area (SSA) of 26.5m2/g as the carrier media. Each experimental run lasted over a six-month period. Due to the long-term impact of accumulation of inert suspended solids in the AnFBR and potential active biomass washout leading to failure, treatability of high suspended-solid streams can be very challenging. Despite the very high strength of thin stillage and primary sludge with chemical oxygen demand of 130,000mg TCOD/L and 42,000mg TCOD/L respectively and suspended solids of 47,000mg TSS/L and 34,000mg TSS/L, the AnFBR showed, up to 88% and 82% TCOD and 78% and 82% TSS removal efficiencies from thin stillage and primary sludge respectively at very high organic and solids loading rates (OLR and SLR) of 29kg COD/m3d and 9.5kg COD/m3d and 10.5kg TSS/m3d and 10.3kg TSS/m3d respectively at hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3.5 and 4 days. Maximum methane production yields of up to 0.31LCH4/gCOD and 0.25LCH4/gCOD were achieved for thin stillage and primary sludge respectively corresponding to biogas production rate per reactor volume of 15.8Lgas/Lreactord and 1.22LCH4/Lreactord.
KW - Biosolids
KW - Fluidized bed bioreactor
KW - High rate anaerobic digester
KW - Primary sludge
KW - Thin stillage
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84902212926&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.renene.2014.05.039
DO - 10.1016/j.renene.2014.05.039
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84902212926
SN - 0960-1481
VL - 71
SP - 276
EP - 285
JO - Renewable Energy
JF - Renewable Energy
ER -
