OPTIMIZATION OF A TWO-PHASE ANAEROBIC DIGESTION SYSTEM by Georgia Dinopoulou

201 Pages·2016·7.47 MB·English

OPTIMIZATION OF A TWO-PHASE ANAEROBIC DIGESTION SYSTEM
by
Georgia Dinopoulou, Diploma (Eng.), M.Sc.
A thesis submitted to the University of London in partial fulfilment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Engineering
and for the Diploma of Imperial College.
June 1988
Public Health and Water Resource Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering
Imperial College of Science and Technology
London SW7 2BU
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ABSTRACT
Fundamental aspects of the biochemistry and microbiology of the numerous
stages involved in the anaerobic biological conversion of organic matter to methane,
as well as recent developments in the field of anaerobic digestion technology, have
indicated that the physical separation and individual optimization of the two major
steps of the process, that is acidogenesis and methanogenesis, may have
advantageous results in the performance and stability of the system.
In order to optimize the two-phase anaerobic digestion system treating a
complex meat based wastewater, the operating conditions for the optimum
performance of the individual phases, as well as the overall process were determined.
Initially, the acidogenic phase was studied separately using a continuous-flow
stirred tank (CSTR) reactor. The influence of the operational parameters, such as
hydraulic retention time, organic loading rate, influent substrate concentration, pH
and temperature on the first phase of anaerobic digestion has been investigated. It
has been shown that the fermentation pattern of the acidogenic phase is generally
not affected by the operational variables, the main fermentation products invariably
being acetic and propionic acids. The concentration of acetic acid increased with the
hydraulic retention time, influent substrate concentration, pH in the range of 5 to 8,
and temperature in the range of 25 to 40 °C. In contrast, the concentration of
propionic acid depended mainly on the substrate availability with a consistent
proportion of the order of 7 % of the influent COD being converted to it.
The kinetics of biomass growth and product formation were also studied. It
has been demonstrated that the Monod equation completely failed to describe the
growth of the acidogenic bacteria, while there was evidence of product inhibition.
Two of the most commonly used inhibition models were applied, the non­
competitive and the Haldane-type models, the former giving superior results.
The performance of the two-phase system was assessed using a CSTR reactor
for the acidogenic phase and a fluidised bed for the methanogenic phase. Different
ratios of the hydraulic retention time of the acidogenic to that of the methanogenic
reactor were examined, while the overall hydraulic retention time of the system was
kept constant. Furthermore, different influent substrate concentrations and different
overall hydraulic retention times were applied. The results have shown that the two-
phase system is capable of COD removals superior or similar to the single-stage
system, when the volume of the methanogenic reactor is reduced by up to 25 % and
an equal volume is introduced as an acidogenic reactor. The effect of phase
separation on the effluent characteristics, biogas production and biomass hold-up
was assessed. Finally, the principles of fluidisation were employed to calculate the
biofilm thickness of the fluidised bed carrier particles, and the kinetics of substrate
removal in the fluidised bed reactors were discussed.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my grateful appreciation to Dr. J. N. Lester,
Dr. T. Rudd and Dr. R. Sterritt for their valuable guidance and supervision
during this study and thesis preparation; to the Greek State Scholarships
Foundation (IKY) for Financial support for this research; to my colleagues in
the Public Health Engineering Section and in particular Dr. S. Stronach-
Cayless for her contribution to the preparation of this thesis.
CONTENTS
Title ....................................................................................................................................... 1
Abstract ................................................................................................................................. 2
Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................... 3
Contents ................................................................................................................................. 4
List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ 7
List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 10
Nomenclature ...................................................................................................................... 14
Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW ................................ 16
1.1. Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment .................................................................... 16
1.2. Biochemistry and Microbiology of Anaerobic Digestion ............................... 17
1.3. Anaerobic Digesters ............................................................................................ 27
1.3.1. General Aspects ......................................................................................... 27
1.3.2. Fundamentals of Anaerobic Fluidised Bed Reactors ........................... 33
1.3.3. Two-phase Anaerobic Digestion ................................................................41
1.4. Bacterial Growth and Biokinetics .................................................................... 48
1.4.1. Fundamentals of Continuous Culture Kinetics .................................... 48
1.4.2. Inhibition Models ...................................................................................... 52
Chapter 2. OBJECTIVES................................................................................................. 56
Chapter 3. MATERIALS AND METHODS .................................................................. 58
3.1. Laboratory Scale Acidification Reactors........................................................ 58
3.1.1. Description of the Acidification Reactor Used in the
Studies of the First Phase of Anaerobic Digestion ............................ 58
3.1.2. Description of the Acidification Reactors Used in the
Two-Phase Studies ....................................................................................61
3.1.3. Operation of the Acidogenic Reactors .................................................. 63
3.2. Laboratory Scale Fluidised Bed Reactors ...................................................... 63
3.2.1. Description of Anaerobic Fluidised Bed Reactors 63
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3.2.2. Operation of Anaerobic Fluidised Bed Reactors ................................ 69
3.2.2.1. Biomass Support Material ............................................................ 69
3.2.2.2. Operational Parameters of the Fluidised Bed Reactors ............ 70
3.3. Synthetic Waste-Water.........................................................................................71
3.4. Sampling Procedures .......................................................................................... 72
3.5. Analytical Methods.............................................................................................. 73
3.5.1. Determination of Chemical Oxygen Demand ...................................... 73
3.5.2. Measurement of pH .................................................................................. 75
3.5.3. Determination of Total Suspended Solids ............................................. 75
3.5.4. Determination of Volatile Fatty Acid Concentration ......................... 77
3.5.5. Determination of Lactic Acid and Ethanol ........................................... 79
3.5.6. Determination of Volatile Solids ............................................................ 79
3.5.7. Gas Composition ....................................................................................... 80
3.6. Preparation of Constant Quality Inoculum .......................................................81
3.7. Pasteurisation of Sludge........................................................................................81
3.8. Batch Studies of Acidogenic Bacteria .............................................................. 82
3.9. Kinetic Calculations ........................................................................................... 82
3.9.1. Estimation of Biokinetic Constants of the Monod Equation ............. 82
3.9.2. Estimation of Biokinetic Constants in the Case of
Non-Linear Equations ............................................................................. 85
3.10. Calculation of the Biofilm Thickness of Fluidised Bed Particles............... 88
3.11. Statistical Analysis ........................................................................................... 90
3.11.1. Calculation of the Variance of a Function .......................................... 90
3.11.2. Analysis of Variance ............................................................................... 90
Chapter 4. RESULTS ...........................................................................................................91
4.1. Kinetic Study of Acidogenic Bacteria in Batch Culture ..................................91
4.2. Evaluation of the Effect of Operational Parameters on the
Performance of an Acidification Reactor ........................................................ 95
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4.2.1. Experimental Design and Reproducibility ............................................ 95
4.2.2. Influence of Hydraulic Retention Time, Organic Loading
Rate and Initial Substrate Concentration on the
Degree and Rate of Acidification ........................................................ 98
4.2.3. Influence of Temperature on the Degree and Rate
of Acidification ........................................................................................ 104
4.2.4. Influence of pH on the Degree and Rate of Acidification ................. 108
4.2.5. The Effect of Operational Parameters on Product Distribution ...... 108
4.3. Kinetic Study of Acidogenic Bacteria in Continuous Culture ..................... 115
4.3.1. Estimation of the Biomass Yield and the Specific
Decay Rate of Acidogenic Bacteria .................................................... 115
4.3.2. Application of Inhibition Models for the Calculation of the
Maximum Specific Growth Rate, Umax* of Acidogenic
Bacteria .................................................................................................. 117
4.3.3. Application of Inhibition Models for the Calculation of
the Maximum Rate of Product Formation, gmax, of
Acidogenic Bacteria ................................................................................. 123
4.4. Effect of Inoculum on the Product Distribution of the
Acidogenic Reactor ............................................................................................ 125
4.5. Characterisation of Start-up Performance of the Two-Phase
Anaerobic Digestion Systems............................................................................. 127
4.5.1. Start-up Procedures .................................................................................. 127
4.5.2. Performance of the Acidogenic Reactors during Start-up ................. 129
4.5.3. Performance of the Methanogenic Reactors during Start-up ............. 135
4.6. Steady-state Operation of Two-Phase Anaerobic Digestion Systems ......... 141
4.6.1. Experimental Design................................................................................. 141
4.6.2. Steady-state Performance of the Two-Phase Anaerobic
Digestion Systems.................................................................................... 142
Chapter 5. DISCUSSION .................................................................................................. 157
Chapter 6. CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................. 186
REFERENCES 189
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LIST OF TABLES
Tabic 1 : Standard free energies associated with methanogenic conversion
of different substrates (after Harper and Pohland, 1986) .............................. 25
Table 2 : Kinetics of acetate cleavage to methane ......................................................... 26
Table 3 : Operational parameters of anaerobic fluidised bed reactors ....................... 40
Table 4 : Theoretical gas yield coefficient for the anaerobic digestion
process .......................................................................................................................41
Table 5 : Operational parameters of two-phase anaerobic digestion
systems ................................................................................................................... 45
Table 6 : Growth parameters of anaerobic bacteria .........................................................51
Table 7 : Physical properties of the carrier sand particles ............................................ 69
Table 8 : Composition of the synthetic waste-water ........................................................71
Table 9 : Composition of the stock trace element solution .......................................... 72
Table 10 : Capillary column gas chromatograph settings for the volatile
fatty acid analysis ................................................................................................ 78
Table 11 : COD conversion factors for the volatile fatty acids ..................................... 85
Table 12 : Range of search for the biokinetic constants ................................................. 86
Table 13 : Values of specific growth rate \i of acidogenic bacteria at 37 °C .............. 92
Table 14 : Estimation of biokinetic constants in batch at 37 °C ................................. 92
Table 15 : Comparison of the biokinetic constants in batch at different
temperatures .......................................................................................................... 94
Table 16 : Operational conditions applied to the acidogenic reactor
during the studies of the first phase of anaerobic digestion ........................ 96
Table 17 : Operational parameters and effluent characteristics of
experimental runs compared for repeatability ................................................ 97
Table 18 : Effluent characteristics of the acidogenic reactor at steady-
state during experimental series I and II ........................................................... 99
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Table 19 : Effluent characteristics of the acidogenic reactor at steady-
state during experimental series III and IV .................................................... 100
Table 20 : Effluent characteristics of the acidogenic reactor at steady-
state during experimental series V .................................................................. 104
Table 21 : Effluent characteristics of the acidogenic reactor at steady-
state during experimental series V I................................................................. 108
Table 22 : Values of the biokinetic constants, as predicted by the non­
competitive inhibition model, and regression lines between the
observed and the predicted values of the total volatile fatty
acid concentrations............................................................................................. 120
Table 23 : Values of the biokinetic constants, as predicted by the
Haldane-type inhibition model, and regression lines between the
observed and the predicted values of the total volatile
fatty acid concentrations ................................................................................... 121
Table 24 : Linear regression of the specific rate of product formation qp
versus the specific rate of biomass growth n ............................................... 124
Table 25 : Values of the biokinetic constants, as calculated by the non­
competitive and the Haldane-type inhibition models, applied
for the description of the specific rate of product formation qp ................ 125
Table 26 : Percentages of the volatile fatty acids produced when
different inocula are used .................................................................................. 127
Table 27 : Volume of the individual reactors used in the four anaerobic
digestion systems ................................................................................................ 128
Table 28 : Operational parameters applied to the two-phase anaerobic
digestion systems during the steady-state experiments ................................ 142
Table 29 : Steady-state performance of the two-phase anaerobic
digestion systems during experiment I ............................................................ 143
Table 30 : Steady-state performance of the two-phase anaerobic
digestion systems during experiment II ........................................................... 144
Table 31 : Steady-state performance of the two-phase anaerobic
digestion systems during experiment III ........................................................ 145
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Table 32 : The % COD removal of the filtered and the unfiltered effluent
of the two-phase anaerobic digestion systems during
steady-state operation ....................................................................................... 148
Table 33 : Biomass hold-up of the anaerobic fluidised bed reactors
during steady-state operation .......................................................................... 152
Table 34 : Biofilm thickness 8 of the fluidised bed particles, as calculated
by the fluidisation model during steady-state operation .............................. 154
Table 35 : Values of the specific decay rate kd and the yield coefficient
Y of acidogenic bacteria .................................................................................... 165
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 : Schematic representation of processes operative during the
biological conversion of organic wastes to methane ..................................... 19
Figure 2 : Possible metabolic routes for the anaerobic degradation
of carbohydrates (after Mudrack and Kunst, 1986) ...................................... 21
Figure 3 : The hydrogen dependent reactions occuring during anaerobic
digestion, and the graphical representation of the standard free
energy change per reaction AG as a function of hydrogen
partial pressure, when the concentration of other products is:
acetic acid, 25 mM; propionic, butyric, lactic acids, and
ethanol, 10 mM; sulphate and sulphite, 5 mM; bicarbonate, 20
mM; methane, 0.7 atm (after Harper and Pohland, 1986) ...................... 24
Figure 4 : Non-attached growth anaerobic digesters .................................................... 28
Figure 5 : Fixed-film anaerobic digesters........................................................................ 29
Figure 6 : Schematic diagram of the reactor used in the first phase
(acidification) studies ........................................................................................ 59
Figure 7 : Ultroferm fermentation system (Biotec 1601) ............................................. 60
Figure 8 : Schematic diagram of the acidification reactors used in the
two-phase anaerobic digestion systems ........................................................... 62
Figure 9 : Schematic diagram of the anaerobic fluidised bed reactor
system ................................................................................................................. 65
Figure 10 : Representation of the construction of the top and base of
the fluidised bed column .................................................................................. 66
Figure 11 : Diagrammatic representation of the construction of the
overflow chamber ............................................................................................... 68
Figure 12 : Calibration graph for the total suspended solids
concentration as a function of the optical density ....................................... 76
Figure 13 : Biomass concentration as a function of time in a batch
culture (after Gaudy and Gaudy, 1980) .......... 84