ANAEROBIC DIGESTION

INTRODUCTION
Is a biological gasification at a low temperature process, that
converts biomass to energy and useful byproducts in the absence of
oxygen
Biogas composed primarily of CH4 (60-70%) and CO2 (30-40%)
with traces of H2S and water vapor.
Its composition depends on the type of raw material subjected to
the digestion process and on the method of conducting this process
High energy fuel which may be used to produce environmentally-
friendly energy
The average efficiency of methane digestion reaches approximately
0.24 m3 of methane from 1 kg of dry organic matter. 1m3 of biogas
of 26 MJ m-3 calorific value may replace 0.77 m3 of natural gas of
33.5 MJ calorific value, 1.1 kg of hard coal of 23.4 MJ calorific value
or 2 kg of firewood of 13.3 MJ calorific value
PRINCIPLE
Digest various types of organic wastes, food industry
wastewater, sewage sludge, animal excrements or organic
fraction of municipal wastes etc
The digestion process is a complex process which undergoes
four phases: hydrolysis, acidogenesis – acidification phase,
acetogenesis, methanogenesis, involving many different groups
of bacteria
Populations of anaerobic microorganisms typically take a
significant period of time to establish themselves to be fully
effective
Common practice : introduce anaerobic microorganisms from
materials with existing populations (seeding process) with the
addition of sewage sludge or cattle slurry
STAGES
STAGES 1
Hydrolysis :
Process of breaking and dissolving the complex molecule into soluble
The complex organic molecules are broken down into simple sugars,
amino acids, and fatty acids thru extracellular enzymes from the
group of hydrolases (amylases, proteases, lipases) produced by
appropriate strains of hydrolyzing bacteria
The rate of hydrolysis process depends on such parameters as: size
of particles, pH, production of enzymes, diffusion and adsorption of
enzymes on the particles of wastes subjected to the digestion
process.
Hydrolysis is carried out by bacteria from the group of relative
anaerobes of genera: Streptococcus, Enterobacterium
Only 50% of organic compounds undergo biodegradation
The remaining part remains in their primary state because of the
lack of enzymes participating in their degradation
STAGE 2
Acidogenesis (acidification phase):
Acidifying bacteria produce an acidic environment (as low as pH 4) in the
digestive tank while creating ammonia, H2, CO2, H2S, shorter volatile fatty acids,
carbonic acids, alcohols, as well as trace amounts of other byproducts.
Among the products of acidogenesis, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide which give
an intense unpleasant smell to this phase of the process should also be
mentioned
The acidogenic bacteria are less sensitive than the methanogenic bacteria to
changes in organic strength and composition in the incoming feed stream.
While acidogenic bacteria further breaks down the organic matter, it is still too
large and unusable for the ultimate goal of methane production, so the biomass
must next undergo the process of acetogenesis
The acid phase bacteria belonging to facultative anaerobes Pseudomonas, Bacillus,
Clostridium, Micrococcus or Flavobacterium
From these products, the hydrogen, carbon dioxide and acetic acid will skip the
third stage, acetogenesis, and be utilized directly by the methanogenic bacteria in
the final stage
STAGE 3
Acetogenesis:
In this process, the acetate bacteria including those of the
genera of Syntrophomonas and Syntrophobacter convert the acid
phase products into acetic acids, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide
Approximately 25% of acetates are formed and approximately
11% of hydrogen are produced
No organic material is removed from the liquid phase: it is
transformed into a form suitable as substrate for the
subsequent process of methanogenesis
STAGE 4
Methanogenesis:
methanogens utilise the intermediate products of the
preceding stages and convert them into methane, carbon
dioxide, and water.
Methanogenesis is sensitive to both high and low pHs and
occurs between pH 6.5 and pH 8
The remaining, non-digestible material that the microbes
cannot feed upon, along with any dead bacterial remains,
constitutes the digestate.
CONFIGURATION
Anaerobic digesters can be designed and engineered to
operate using a number of different process
configurations:
Batch or continuous
Temperature: Mesophilic or thermophilic
Solids content: High solids or low solids
Complexity: Single stage or multistage
CONFIGURATION
Batch
A batch system is the simplest form of digestion. Biomass is added to the
reactor at the start of the process in a batch and is sealed for the
duration of the process.
Batch reactors suffer from odour issues that can be a severe problem
when they are emptied.
Is simple, requires less equipment, lower levels of design work and is
typically a cheaper form of digestion
Continuous
Organic matter is constantly added (continuous complete mixed) or
added in stages to the reactor (continuous plug flow; first in – first out).
The end-products are constantly or periodically removed, resulting in
constant production of biogas.
A single or multiple digesters in sequence may be used.
Examples of this form of anaerobic digestion include continuous stirred-
tank reactors (CSTRs), Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB)
CONFIGURATION- TEMPERATURE
There are two conventional operational temperature levels:
Mesophilic
Optimally around 30-38 °C or at ambient temperatures between 20-45
°C where mesophiles are the primary microorganism present
Number of species of mesophiles are greater, also more stable and
tolerant to changes in environmental conditions than thermophiles.
Thermophilic
Optimally around 49-57 °C at elevated temperatures up to 70 °C where
thermophiles are the primary microorganisms present
Less stable and the energy input is higher to achieve correct
operational temperatures
More energy is removed from the organic matter.
The increased temperatures facilitate faster reaction rates and hence,
faster gas yields.
Operation at higher temperatures facilitates greater sterilization of
the end-digestate
OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS - SOLIDS
there are three different operational parameters
associated with the solids content of the feedstock to the
digesters:
High-solids (dry—stackable substrate)
High-solids (wet—pumpable substrate)
Low-solids (wet—pumpable substrate)
OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS – HIGH
SOLIDS (DRY)
Designed to process materials with a high-solids content between ~25-40%
solid substrates without the addition of water
Three primary styles of dry digesters:
continuous vertical plug flow digester - upright, cylindrical tanks where
feedstock is continuously fed to the top of the digester and flows downward by
gravity during digestion
batch tunnel horizontal digester - feedstock is deposited in tunnel-like chambers
with a gas-tight door
Neither approach has mixing inside the digester and do not use water
addition
The pretreatment such as contaminant removal depends upon the nature
of the waste streams being processed and the desired quality of the
digestate.
Grinding for size reduction is beneficial in continuous vertical systems as it
accelerates digestion
OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS – HIGH
SOLIDS (DRY)
Grinding for size reduction is beneficial in continuous vertical systems as it
accelerates digestion
Batch systems avoid grinding but require structure (e.g. yard waste) to
reduce compaction of the stacked pile.
Continuous vertical dry digesters have a smaller footprint due to the
shorter effective retention time and vertical design
40-48% solid degradation in the
effluent – provide easy flowability
to outlet slurry
Suitable for solid state cattle
dung digestion (fresh)
OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS – HIGH
SOLIDS (WET)
Designed to operate in either a high-solids content, with
a total suspended solids (TSS) concentration greater than
~20%, or a low-solids concentration less than ~15%
Process a thick slurry that requires more energy input to
move and process the feedstock
Have a lower land requirement due to the lower volumes
associated with the moisture
OPERATIONAL PARAMETERS – LOW
SOLIDS (WET)
Require a larger amount of land than high-solids due to
the increase volumes associated with the increased liquid-
to-feedstock ratio of the digesters.
Benefits:
enables more thorough circulation of materials and contact
between the bacteria and their food.
enables the bacteria to more readily access the substances
they are feeding off and increases the speed of gas yields
The types of feedstocks treated are wastewater sludge,
industrial wastewater, manure, food waste slurries
CONFIGURATION - ONE-STAGE OR
SINGLE-STAGE
All of the biological reactions occur within a single sealed
reactor
Single stage reduces construction costs
Less control of the reactions occurring within the system.
Direct competition between different species in a single-
stage reactor since acidogenic bacteria, through the
production of acids, reduce the pH of the tank while
methanogenic bacteria, operate in a strictly defined pH
range
CONFIGURATION - TWO-STAGE OR
MULTISTAGE
Different digestion vessels are optimised to bring maximum control
The first stage, known as the primary or acid phase digester, consists
of the hydrolysis and the acid-production step (acidogenesis)
The second stage, known as the secondary or methane stage
digester consists of further conversion of organic matter to acetic
acid through acetogenesis, as well as the methane formation step
In a typical two-stage system, the primary digester is heated to
optimize performance of the hydrolytic and acidogenic bacteria.
The secondary digester is not normally equipped with mixing or
heating facilities because of the exothermic (heat-producing) nature
of the methane formation reaction
An alternative method for designing the system is to separate the
stages over time by adding different levels of heating at different
times in the process by a process called temperature-phased
anaerobic digestion
CONFIGURATION - TWO-STAGE OR
MULTISTAGE
Advantages:
Optimizing the specific conditions under which the various steps
take place (retention time, ph, temperature)
Reduce the short circuiting of solids by separating the stages
Can be optimized to maximize the amount of gas they produce in
the digestion phase
Require less digester volume to handle the same amount of input
volume because they have lower retention times and allow higher
loading rates than single-stage systems.
Achieved vs reduction, which provides better odor control.
Can be configured to reduce foaming problems.
Disadvantage:
The piping requirements for a multi-stage system, operation, and
maintenance are more complex than those for a single-stage system.
Anaerobic Digestion Systems.html
FEEDSTOCK
The level of putrescibility, more putrescible (digestible) the material means
higher gas yields and higher methane production rates
Therefore, many digesters operate with co-digestion of two or more types of
feedstock
for example, in a farm-based digester that uses dairy manure as the primary
feedstock, the gas production may be significantly increased by adding a second
feedstock, e.g., grass and corn
the biomass is often shredded, minced, and mechanically or hydraulically pulped to
increase the surface area available to microbes in the digesters and, hence, increase
the speed of digestion
The carbon:nitrogen ratio is important for balance of food a microbe requires
in order to grow, optimal C:N ratio for the 'food' a microbe is 20–30:1
Excess N can lead to ammonia inhibition of digestion
Pre-processing of feedstock will be required if the feedstock has significant
levels of physical contaminants such as plastic, glass, or metals
If it is not removed then the digesters can be blocked and will not function
efficiently
Pretreatment of lignocellulosic biomass
Pretreatment gives the solid plant biomass a significantly
higher biogas potential
The highly crystalline cellulose (packed in matrix of lignin)
and hemicellulose in its natural structure is the main
drawbacks to limiting the production of methane
Effective pretreatment is needed to enhance its
digestibility
Extrusion – increase 30% biogas
Enzymetic hydrolysis
RESIDENCE TIME
The residence time in a digester varies with the amount
and type of feed material, the configuration of the
digestion system i.e one-stage or two-stage.
Multi-stage systems are typically shorter than those of
single-stage systems
Mesophilic digester : the feedstock remains in the digester
for 15-30 days, digestion process tends to be more robust
than the thermophilic process but produces less biogas.
Thermophilic digester : the residence time is typically 12-
14 days. Thermophilic digestion offers higher methane
production and leads to greater pathogen removal than
mesophilic digestion.
DESIGN CRITERIA – HEAT EXCHANGER
Temperature is important in determining the rate of digestion
Typical auxiliary heating methods include steam injection,
internal heat exchangers, and external heat exchangers.
The most common : external heat exchangers; because of their
flexibility and the ease of maintaining their heating surfaces.
Internal coils and heat-jacketed draft tube mixers can become
caked and effectively blocked, necessitating removing them or
taking the digester out of service to empty and clean the
system.
Steam injection results in dilution of the digester contents and
can be energy-inefficient
DESIGN CRITERIA – MIXING
Mixing of the digester contents is beneficial for :
reducing thermal stratification
dispersing the biosolids for better contact with the
microorganisms
reducing scum buildup
diluting levels of any inhibitory substances or adverse feed
characteristics
retaining inorganic material (grit) in suspension
Typical mixing methods:
mechanical mixing-use of impellers, propellers, and turbine wheels
hydraulic mixing-by recirculating digester content through use of
an external pump network from the lower half of the digester to
the top of the digester
gas recirculation-digester gas is compressed and recirculated
through the tank
DESIGN CRITERIA – COVERS
It is necessary to maintain anaerobic conditions, prevent digester gas from
being released and reduce the amount of heat loss to the atmosphere.
Covers can be fixed or floating.
Fixed covers:
flat, conical, or dome-shaped and are constructed of reinforced concrete or steel
Easier to design, requires less maintenance, and is less prone to develop gas
leaks.
Floating covers:
can rest directly on the liquid surface or float on the gas and be supported by
side skirts at the side of the tank
floating covers rise and fall with the liquid level in the digester and therefore
prevent formation of a vacuum, which could damage the vessel or the cover.
prevent air from being drawn into the digester during solids removal
The appropriate type of cover depends on the design and size of the
digester.
OPERATION-FOAMING PROBLEM
Foam forms primarily when the carbon dioxide-to-methane ratio is
higher than normal
Usually occurs during start-up operations, but it can occur
whenever a fresh food supply suddenly contacts active
microorganisms
This is one reason continuous slow feed of solids is preferred to
batch feeding of digesters.
In addition, a common bacterium, Nocardia, has a filamentous
structure that traps gas, leading to foaming. These bacteria should be
eliminated in aeration basins before the solids are fed to the
digesters.
Two-stage anaerobic digestion naturally overcomes this problem
because the first stage (acid phase) digester has low gas production
and low pH, along with higher volatile acid concentrations, which
together are detrimental to foam-causing microorganisms.
PRODUCT-BIOGAS
The gas is normally stored on top of the digester in an
inflatable gas bubble or extracted and stored next to the
facility in a gas holder.
The methane in biogas can be burned to produce both heat
and electricity, usually with a reciprocating engine or
microturbine in a cogeneration arrangement where the
electricity and waste heat generated are used to warm the
digesters
Biogas may require treatment or 'scrubbing' to refine it for use
as a fuel
If the levels of hydrogen sulfide in the gas are high, gas
scrubbing and cleaning equipment (such as amine gas treating)
will be needed
PRODUCT-DIGESTATE
Digestate is the solid remnants of the original input material to
the digesters that the microbes cannot use
Can come in three forms: fibrous, liquor, or a sludge-based
combination of the two fractions
Fibrous (acidogenic digestate)
a stable organic material consisting largely of lignin and cellulose, but
also of a variety of mineral components in a matrix of dead bacterial
cells
it resembles domestic compost and can be used as compost or to
make low-grade building products such as fibreboard
Liquor (methanogenic digestate)
rich in nutrients and can be used as a fertiliser dependent on the
quality of the material being digested
How does a biogas plant work
GENERAL DRAWBACKS OF AD
Conversion is usually incomplete, often leaving as much as
50% of the organic matter unconverted.
Process rates are significantly lower than those of thermal
processes
The bacteria involved require a balanced diet of nutrients
that may not be available in some feedstocks.
Cows wear BACKPACK!
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