Abstract
This paper examines the effect of mixing on the performance of thermophilic anaerobic digestion of source-sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste during the start-up phase and in the absence of an acclimated seed. For this purpose, two digesters were used under similar starting conditions and operated for 235days with different mixing schemes. While both digesters exhibited a successful startup with comparable specific methane yield of 0.327 and 0.314l CH 4/gVS, continuous slow stirring improved stability by reducing average VFA accumulation from 2890 to 825mg HAc/l, propionate content from 2073 to 488mg/l, and VFA-to-alkalinity ratio from 0.32 to 0.07. As a result, the startup with slow mixing was faster and smoother accomplishing a higher loading capacity of 2.5gVS/l/d in comparison to 1.9gVS/l/d for non-mixing. Mixing equally improved microbial abundance from 6.6 to 10gVSS/l and enhanced solids and soluble COD removal. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 63-71 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Bioresource Technology |
| Volume | 117 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2012 |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the National Council for Scientific Research, Lebanon and the Masri Institute of Energy and Natural Resources at the American University of Beirut. Special thanks are extended to the US Agency for International Development for its support in acquiring the automated bioreactors used in the experimental program.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Bioengineering
- Environmental Engineering
- Waste Management and Disposal
