Improvement of mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion of agri-food waste by addition of glycerol
Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
Elsevier
Materia
Crude glycerol Economic assessment Fish Waste kinetics Mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion Strawberry waste
Date
2014-07-01Referencia bibliográfica
Journal of Environmental Management, 2014, Volume 140, Pages 76 - 82
Sponsorship
Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Cordoba. The authors are very grateful to the ADESVA Technology Centre (Huelva, Spain) and the company HUDISA S.A. (Huelva, Spain) for supplying the wastes and The Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for funding this research through Project CTM2011-26350. We also wish to express our gratitude to Inmaculada Bellido and María Luisa López for her contribution to this research.Abstract
Anaerobic co-digestion is a promising alternative to manage agri-food waste rather than landfilling, composting or incineration. But improvement of methane yield and biodegradability is often required to optimize its economic viability. Biomethanization of agri-food solid waste presents the disadvantage of a slow hydrolytic phase, which might be enhanced by adding a readily digestible substrate such as glycerol. In this study, strawberry extrudate, fish waste and crude glycerol derived from biodiesel manufacturing are mixed at a proportion of 54:5:41, in VS (VS, total volatile solids), respectively. The mesophilic anaerobic co-digestion at lab-scale of the mixture was stable at loads lower than 1.85g VS/L, reaching a methane yield coefficient of 308L CH4/kg VS (0°C, 1atm) and a biodegradability of 96.7%, in VS. Moreover, the treatment capacity of strawberry and fish waste was increased 16% at adding the crude glycerol. An economic assessment was also carried out in order to evaluate the applicability of the proposed process. Even in a pessimistic scenario, the net balance was found to be positive. The glycerol adding implied a net saving in a range from 25.5 to 42.1 €/t if compared to landfill disposal