INCREASING ANAEROBIC DIGESTION PERFORMANCE OF WASTEWATER WITH CO-DIGESTION USING DECANTER CAKE

Abstract

Low biogas production in the frozen seafood wastewater anaerobic digestion is observed due to the low organic and Total Solids (TS) contents in the wastewater. In this research the decanter cake will be used in the anaerobic co-digestion process to improve the biogas production rate. The effect of co-digestion and Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) will be investigated using the continuously stirred tank reactors under anaerobic conditions. Moreover, the study determines the biogas production potential of different HRTs and that of wastewater digestion alone. The anaerobic co-digestion is operated in continuous with continuously stirred reactors at HRT of 10, 20 and 30 days. The mechanical stirring units of all reactors are operated automatically. The stirring action occurred continuously during the experiments. The anaerobic co-digestion results show that the anaerobic co-digestion provides higher biogas production rate and higher methane yield than that of the wastewater digestion alone. The optimum HRT of the anaerobic co-digestion is 20 days. This reactor produces 2.88 L day^-1, with 64.5% of methane and the maximum methane production rate of 1.87 L day^-1 and the methane yield of 0.321 l CH₄/g COD_removed. The anaerobic co-digestion of wastewater with decanter cake provides the higher methane yield potential production than that provided by the wastewater digestion alone at the ambient temperature. The best HRT is 20 days for anaerobic co-digestion between the wastewater and decanter cake. The experimental results reveal that HRT and co-digestion are the parameters that can affect the biogas production and methane yield.