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Project

Improving the efficiency of anaerobic digestion through ultrasonic digestate disintegration: parameter evaluation, advanced mathematical modeling and evaluation of a two-digester system.

Anaerobic digestion is a biological process that converts organic wastes into energy rich biogas and nutrient rich digestate. The produced biogas can be valorised on site as electricity and heat, or it can be upgraded into methane and used in existing methane grids or used as transportation fuel. The hydrolysis step is generally regarded as the rate-limiting step of anaerobic digestion. In this research, the effect digestate disintegration methods on the biochemical characteristics of dairy manure digestate was investigated. In this scope, hydrogen peroxide, ozone and ultrasound disintegration techniques were used. Among the tested methods, ultrasound disintegration increased the soluble fraction of the digestate and slightly increased the bioaccessibility of the solid fraction which increased the methane production. This positive effect is related to the digestate age and the specific ultrasonic energy. The overall results of this thesis are expected to increase the application potential of digestate disintegration.

Date:1 Oct 2015 →  11 Feb 2021
Keywords:Anaerobic Digestion, Pretreatments, Digestate disintegration
Disciplines:Catalysis and reacting systems engineering, Chemical product design and formulation, General chemical and biochemical engineering, Process engineering, Separation and membrane technologies, Transport phenomena, Other (bio)chemical engineering
Project type:PhD project