Model-based predictions of anaerobic digestion of agricultural substrates for biogas production

A modified Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1), calibrated on a laboratory digester with a feeding mix of 30% weight of cow manure and 70% weight of corn silage, was implemented, showing its performances of simulation as a decision-making and planning-supporting tool for the anaerobic digestion of agricultural substrates. The virtual fermenter obtained was used to conduct simulations with different feeding compositions and loading rates of cow manure, corn silage, grass silage and rape oil. All simulations were started at the same initial state which was represented by a steady state with an organic loading rate of 2.5 kg ODM/(). The effects of the different feeding combinations on biogas composition and biogas yield were predicted reasonably, and partly verified with the available literature data. Results demonstrated that the simulations could be helpful for taking decisions on agricultural biogas plant operation or experimental set-ups, if used advisedly.     

Land cover changes with the development of anaerobic digestion for biogas production in France

Anaerobic digestion is developing in various countries worldwide to produce renewable energy. In addition, the resulting digestates provide readily available nutrients when applied to cropping systems as fertilizers. The introduction of a biogas plant on a farm can induce land cover changes, in relation to the production of feedstock for the biogas plant and/or to the modification of the farming system. The aim of this study was therefore to characterize and quantify the land cover changes in farms associated with biogas plants in France. We combined two national spatialized databases: the Land Parcel Identification System (yearly French land cover at the parcel scale with farm identifier per parcel) and the SINOE database (biogas plant location and year of start-up). We showed that, on average, the changes were limited, with an increase in maize areas (+3.4% of the total farm areas) compensated by a decrease in wheat and rapeseed areas (−1.8% and −1.9%, respectively), but with a certain variability. The French regulation and market limiting the use of dedicated energy crops seems to have limited land cover changes in France compared to other countries. However, we elaborated a typology of land cover changes and characterized five clusters of farms across the country. The main one (67% of the farms) corresponded to unchanged land cover after the introduction of a biogas plant. The four other clusters showed contrasting changes, for example, an increase or a decrease in grassland areas, a strong increase in maize areas, or a replacement of winter wheat by winter barley. The diversity and the driving factors behind these changes deserve to be better studied and understood through further farmer surveys.     

Extrusion as a pretreatment to increase biogas production

Application of an extruder to increase the methane yield in a biogas production was examined, and large potential was proved. An extruder was tested on five agricultural biomass types, represented by 13 samples. The samples were analyzed for temperature, maximum particle size, biogas potential, and energy consumption. The extruder treatment increased biomass temperature by 5-35 °C. Large particles (>1 mm) were most affected by the extruder. Extrusion accelerated the degradation of slowly degradable organic compounds, and some otherwise nondegradable organic compounds were also degraded. The methane yield increased significantly: by 18-70% after 28 days, and by 9-28% after 90 days. The electrical energy equivalent of the extra methane, after subtracting the energy used by the extruder, resulted in energy surpluses of 6-68%. By day 90, the energy-efficiency of the extrusion process was ranked as follows: grass = straw = solids of flocculated manure < solids of screw-pressed manure < deep litter.     

Energy cover crops for biogas production increase soil organic carbon stocks: A modeling approach

Energy cover crops for biogas production through anaerobic digestion (AD) are inserted between two primary crops. They replace either bare soil or nonharvested cover crops, and their management is usually intensified to produce more biomass. They allow the production of renewable energy as well as digestate, used as an organic fertilizer, without directly competing with food production. Because of the increased biomass production and export and of the return of a digested biomass to the soil, the impact of energy cover crops on soil organic carbon (SOC) is questioned. The objective of this paper was to study the difference in SOC stocks induced by the introduction of energy cover crops for AD coupled with the application of the resulting amount of digestate. We used the AD model Sys-Metha combined with the soil C model AMG to simulate SOC stocks for 13 case studies in France, with scenarios comparing different intercrop management practices, with or without cover crops, harvested or not. Our results indicated that the higher biomass production of energy cover crops (from 6.7 to 11.1 t DM ha⁻¹) in comparison with nonharvested cover crops (2 t DM ha⁻¹) or bare soil led to higher humified C input (belowground input and digestate), despite the high C fraction exported in AD. This resulted in an increase in SOC stocks in comparison with nonharvested cover crops or bare soil (from 0.01 to 0.12 t C ha⁻¹ year⁻¹ over 30 years). The uncertainties in the model parameters did not modify these results. However, in the case of equal biomass production between energy cover crops and nonharvested cover crops, SOC stocks would be lower with energy cover crops.     

Investigation of factors influencing biogas production in a large-scale thermophilic municipal biogas plant

A continuously operated, thermophilic, municipal biogas plant was observed over 26 months (sampling twice per month) in regard to a number of physicochemical parameters and the biogas production. Biogas yields were put in correlation to parameters such as the volatile fatty acid concentration, the pH and the ammonium concentration. When the residing microbiota was classified via analysis of the 16S rRNA genes, most bacterial sequences matched with unidentified or uncultured bacteria from similar habitats. Of the archaeal sequences, 78.4% were identified as belonging to the genus Methanoculleus, which has not previously been reported for biogas plants, but is known to efficiently use H₂ and CO₂ produced by the degradation of fatty acids by syntrophic microorganisms. In order to further investigate the influence of varied amounts of ammonia (2–8 g/L) and volatile fatty acids on biogas production and composition (methane/CO₂), laboratory scale satellite experiments were performed in parallel to the technical plant. Finally, ammonia stripping of the process water of the technical plant was accomplished, a measure through which the ammonia entering the biogas reactor via the mash could be nearly halved, which increased the energy output of the biogas plant by almost 20%.     

Anaerobic fermentation of sheep droppings for biogas production

Production of biogas in batch digesters at 30°C from sheep droppings produced 93 l gas/kg dry matter whereas cattle dung yielded 234 l/kg dry matter. When the sheep droppings and cattle dung were used at 25:75 (w/w), gas production per kg dry matter was equal to that of cattle dung only. The methane content of the biogas obtained from sheep droppings was 70 to 72% as compared to 56 to 60% from cattle dung.     

Utilization of by-products from ethanol production as substrate for biogas production

The aims of this work were to determine the specific biogas yields of steam-exploded sugarcane straw and bagasse as well as to estimate their energy potential under Brazilian conditions. Steam-explosion was carried out under different time and temperature conditions. The specific biogas yields were analyzed in batch-tests according to VDI 4630.Results have shown that steam-explosion pre-treatment increased the specific biogas yields of straw and bagasse significantly compared to the untreated material. The utilization of these by-products can contribute to 5% of the total energy consumption and thereby higher energy independence in Brazil. Further efforts in defining the optimum pretreatment conditions with steam-explosion as well as implementing this technology in large scale plants should be made.     

Life-cycle assessment of microalgae culture coupled to biogas production

Due to resource depletion and climate change, lipid-based algal biofuel has been pointed out as an interesting alternative because of the high productivity of algae per hectare and per year and its ability to recycle CO₂ from flue gas. Another option for taking advantage of the energy content of the microalgae is to directly carry out anaerobic digestion of raw algae in order to produce methane and recycle nutrients (N, P and K). In this study, a life-cycle assessment (LCA) of biogas production from the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris is performed and the results are compared to algal biodiesel and to first generation biodiesels. These results suggest that the impacts generated by the production of methane from microalgae are strongly correlated with the electric consumption. Progresses can be achieved by decreasing the mixing costs and circulation between different production steps, or by improving the efficiency of the anaerobic process under controlled conditions. This new bioenergy generating process strongly competes with others biofuel productions.     

Electrocoagulation of olive mill wastewaters to enhance biogas production

Objectives

To assess the combination of electrocoagulation and anaerobic co-digestion of olive mill wastewaters (OMWW) with other substrates, such as chicken manure, in a continuous stirred tank reactor for biogas production.

Results

Anaerobic digestion of OMWW treated by electrocoagulation allowed higher production of biogas, up to 0.74 l biogas g^?1 COD introduced compared to untreated or diluted olive mill wastewaters (OMWW) (0.37 and 0.6 l biogas g^?1 COD) respectively. Pretreated OMWW co-digested with chicken manure at different volumic ratios OMWW/manure in a continuous stirred tank reactor under mesophilic conditions revealed that OMWW/manure (7:3 v/v) was optimal for biogas production and process stability.

Conclusion

Anaerobic digestion could achieve promising results in depollution and valorization of OMWW under a continuous stirred tank reactor.

     

Model-based design and integration of a two-step biopharmaceutical production process

This paper presents the design of a two-step process in which the first step is PEGylation of a protein, and the second step is chromatographic purification of the target mono-PEGylated protein from the unreacted and the di-PEGylated impurities. The difference between optimizing each process step separately and optimizing them simultaneously is studied. It was found that by optimizing the steps simultaneously up to a 100 % increase in productivity could be obtained without reduction in yield. Optimizing both steps at the same time makes it possible for the optimization method to take into account that the di-PEGylated protein is much easier to separate than the non-PEGylated protein. The easier separation makes it possible to get a higher yield and productivity at the same time. The effect of recycling was also studied and the yield could be increased by 30 % by recycling the unreacted protein. However, if maximum productivity is required, batch mode is preferable.     

Development of mixed inoculum for methane enriched biogas production

Inocula were collected from four different sources such as Jajmau tannery waste treatment plant (ITW), Jajmau municipal waste treatment (IMW), Unnao distillery (IDW) and a batch reactor, in which the sludge of a field scale biogas reactor was added to cow dung slurry to develop inoculum (IBS). A combination of these mixed inocula were used for biogas production at 35°C in laboratory scale reactor (10 L capacity) and the average yield of biogas (0.547 Lg^?1 volatile solid (VS)) and methane (0.323 Lg^?1VS) in 41 d was higher in case of mixed inoculum IMW ₁ (IMW+IBS), with maximum methane content in biogas (68% during 27–30 d), as compared to other mixed inocula as well as control i.e. ITW ₁ (ITW+IBS), IDW₁ (IDW+IBS) and IBS. The corresponding yields of gas were biogas (0.505, 0.536 and 0.456 Lg^?1VS), methane (0.288, 0.305, and 0.245 Lg^?1VS) where as, the corresponding maximum methane content in biogas was 62% during 29–33d, 64% during 29–33 d and 62% during 27–29 d in ITW₁, IDW₁ and IBS.     

Shedding light on biogas: Phototrophic biofilms in anaerobic digesters hold potential for improved biogas production

Conventional anaerobic digesters intended for the production of biogas usually operate in complete darkness. Therefore, little is known about the effect of light on their microbial communities. In the present work, 16S rRNA gene amplicon Nanopore sequencing and shotgun metagenomic sequencing were used to study the taxonomic and functional structure of the microbial community forming a biofilm on the inner wall of a laboratory-scale transparent anaerobic biodigester illuminated with natural sunlight. The biofilm was composed of microorganisms involved in the four metabolic processes needed for biogas production, and it was surprisingly rich in Rhodopseudomonas faecalis, a versatile bacterium able to carry out photoautotrophic metabolism when grown under anaerobic conditions. The results suggested that this bacterium, which is able to fix carbon dioxide, could be considered for use in transparent biogas fermenters in order to contribute to the production of optimized biogas with a higher CH₄:CO₂ ratio than the biogas produced in regular, opaque digesters. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study characterising the phototrophic biofilm associated with illuminated bioreactors.     

Biostimulation of anaerobic digestion using nanomaterials for increasing biogas production

Reviews in Environmental Science and Bio/Technology - Biomass energy, especially biogas production, is a renewable and sustainable form of energy. Biogas is becoming more important due to its...     

Utilization of spent agro-residues from mushroom cultivation for biogas production

Summary Various spent agro-residues obtained after cultivation of the edible mushroom Pleurotus sajor-caju were used in anaerobic digestors for production of biogas. The changes that take place in the residues during bioconversion were quantified in terms of composition of cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, carbon and nitrogen. These mycostraws resulted in increased biogas production over the untreated ones, which varied from 21.5% in the case of spent bagasse to 38.8% in the case of spent paddy straw. The increased biogas generation by the spent residues seems to be due to the increased susceptibility to digestion and more favourable C/N ratio of the residues. Offprint requests to: V. S. Bisaria     

生物强化技术在生物质沼气制备过程中的应用及研究进展

生物强化技术通过为特定的生物过程"设计"微生物,进而作为一种提升反应系统活力和性能的手段被应用于生物质沼气制备过程,以便加快发酵系统启动时间、增加原料利用率、缩短酸败系统的恢复时间、降低高有机负荷的抑制作用等。本文针对以木质纤维素为原料的沼气制备中的生物强化技术,从生物强化菌剂的构建及标准、生物强化作用的影响因素、生物强化作用机制的探究等几个方面来阐述目前国内外生物强化技术在生物质沼气制备过程中的应用与研究进展,以及存在的问题和解决方案。     

Adaptive identification of anaerobic digestion process for biogas production management systems

Bioprocess and Biosystems Engineering - To achieve the goals of sustainable development, supplies of renewable energy must be increased and methods of stable production developed. This study...     

Use of the effluent from biogas production for cultivation of Spirulina

The effluent from the biogas process was tested as a nutrient source during cultivation of the protein-rich and edible microalgae Spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) and compared with conventional Spirulina medium. Equal biomass production was observed until late exponential phase and no significant differences could be observed between the treatments in protein amount, amino acid composition, and total lipid concentration. The concentration of the pigment phycocyanin differed significantly between Spirulina medium and the effluent-based medium (63.3 ± 11.7 and 86.2 ± 1.9 mg g⁻¹, respectively). Slightly higher concentrations of saturated fatty acids, mainly palmitic acid, were observed in the biomass produced in Spirulina medium than in that produced in the effluent-based medium. In the biomass produced in the effluent-based medium, the cadmium concentration was 0.07 ± 0.05 mg kg⁻¹ of dry weight, whereas it was below the detection limit in the biomass produced in Spirulina medium. There is a need to identify new food and feed resources and a possible future scenario is to integrate Spirulina production into the biogas plant for protein production as it contains more than 60% of protein on dry weight basis. In that scenario, it is important to control heavy metal concentrations in the biogas slurry fed to Spirulina.

     

Feeding approaches for biogas production from animal wastes and industrial effluents

Different feeding approaches were applied to a 5 l anaerobic digester in order to improve the biogas production. During operation, the reactor was fed with a mixture (9.7% w/v total solids (TS) and 7.6% w/v volatile solids (VS) in average) of pig manure with fish oil waste and waste from bentonite of edible oil filtration process, at different intervals of 24, 12 and 4 h at 15 days of hydraulic retention time. Production and quality of the biogas were practically constant at 183.7 ml (average) of biogas per gram of volatile solids available in the reactor per day, and the best biogas composition was 73.6% v/v CH₄ and 26.4% v/v CO₂.