hyperthermophilic anaerobic digestion of food waste

195 Pages·2008·0.81 MB·English

HYPERTHERMOPHILIC ANAEROBIC DIGESTION
OF FOOD WASTE

Luis Ortega Charleston
May, 2008

Department of Bioresource Engineering
McGill University, Montreal

A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the
requirements of the Ph. D. degree
© Luis Ortega Charleston, 2008

SUGGESTED SHORT TITLE:
Hyperthermophilic digestion of food waste
CONTENTS
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
LIST OF FIGURES 8
LIST OF TABLES 11
ABBREVIATIONS AND NOTATIONS 14
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND DEDICATORY 16
ABSTRACT 18
RESUMÉ 20
1 INTRODUCTION 22
1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT 22
1.2 PROPOSED STUDY 26
1.3 OBJECTIVES 27
1.4 SCOPE 29
ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS 30
2 LITERATURE REVIEW 31
2.1 MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE DEFINITIONS AND 31
CHARACTERISTICS
2.1.1 OFMSW CHARACTERISTICS 36
2.1.1.1 UC-OFMSW characteristics 38
2.1.1.2 Separate collected (SC-OFMSW) and source sorted (SS-OFMSW) 40
characteristics
2.1.2 WASTE MANAGEMENT 42

2
CONTENTS (Continuation)
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
2.2 ANAEROBIC DIGESTION 45
2.2.1 BIOCHEMISTRY AND MICROBIOLOGY 45
2.2.1.1 Hydrolysis 49
2.2.1.2 Fermentation and β-oxidation 54
2.2.1.3 Methanogenesis 55
2.3 ANAEROBIC TECHNOLOGY FOR THE TREATMENT OF MSW 59
2.3.1 ONE-STAGE SYSTEMS 61
2.3.1.1 One-stage wet systems 61
2.3.1.2 One-stage dry systems 63
2.3.2 TWO-STAGE SYSTEMS 66
2.3.3 BATCH SYSTEMS 68
2.4 PERSPECTIVES 69
2.5 THERMOPHILIC ANAEROBIC TREATMENT OF MSW 70
2.5.1 OPERATION CONDITIONS 72
2.5.2 LOADING CAPACITY 75
2.5.3 BIOGAS AND CH4 PRODUCTION 75
2.5.4 PATHOGEN REDUCTION 77
2.5.5 ENERGY RECOVERY 80
2.5.6 OTHER ADVANTAGES 81

3 LUIS ORTEGA CHARLESTON
CONTENTS (Continuation)
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
2.6 OFMSW PRE-TREATMENT AND HYPERTHERMOPHILIC 81
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION
CONNECTING STATEMENT (First scientific paper) 85
3 Thermophilic adaptation of a mesophilic anaerobic sludge for food waste 86
treatment
3.0 ABSTRACT 86
3.1 INTRODUCTION 87
3.2 METHODOLOGY 89
3.2.1 SUBSTRATE 89
3.2.2 SEED 90
3.2.3 REACTOR SET-UP 91
3.2.4 EXPERIMENTAL STAGES 92
3.2.5 ANALYTICAL METHODS 93
3.2.6 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS 94
3.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 96
3.3.1 MESOPHILIC TO THERMOPHILIC TRANSITION (STAGE C0) 96
3.3.2 EFFECT OF F/M ON THERMOPHILIC FERMENTATION (STAGES C1 TO C3) 99
3.3.3 SUBSTRATE ACTIVITY TEST FOR THERMOPHILIC FERMENTATION (STAGES C1 103
TO C3)
3.3.4 RESTORATION OF THERMOPHILIC SLUDGE (STAGE C4) 105
3.4 CONCLUSIONS 105
4
CONTENTS (Continuation)
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
3.5 Acknowledgments 106
3.6 References 106
CONNECTING STATEMENT (Second scientific article) 109
4 PHYLOGENETIC DESCRITPION OF A THERMOPHILICALLY 110
ADAPTED MICROBIAL ANAEROBIC MESOPHILIC SLUDGE
4.0 ABSTRACT 110
4.1 INTRODUCTION 111
4.2 METHODOLOGY 113
4.2.1 EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS 113
4.2.2 THERMOPHILIC ADAPTATION OF THE MESOPHILIC SLUDGE 114
4.2.3 ANALYTICAL METHODS 115
4.2.4 MICROBIAL DIVERSITY 115
4.3 RESULTS 117
4.3.1 ADAPTATION FROM MESOPHILIC TO THERMOPHILIC CONDITIONS AND F/M 117
LOADING
4.3.2 SLUDGE MICROBIAL EVOLUTION 118
4.4 DISCUSSION 122
4.5 CONCLUSIONS 124
CONNECTING STATEMENT (Third scientific article) 126
5 METHANE PRODUCTION TEST: A TOOL FOR EVALUATING 127
ANAEROBIC LIMITING-STEP DEGRADATION OF FOOD WASTE
5.0 ABSTRACT 127
5 LUIS ORTEGA CHARLESTON
CONTENTS (Continuation)
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
5.1 INTRODUCTION 128
5.2 METHODOLOGY 129
5.2.1 SLUDGE 129
5.2.2 SUBSTRATES 130
5.2.3 METHANE PRODUCTION (MP) TESTS 131
5.2.4 ANALYTICAL METHODS 134
5.2.5 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS 135
5.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 135
5.3.1 ACETOCLASTIC METHANOGENESIS UNDER MESOPHILIC CONDITIONS 135
5.3.2 MESOPHILIC AND THERMOPHILIC MP TESTS FOR ALBUMIN AND AMINO 139
ACIDS
5.3.3 MESOPHILIC AND THERMOPHILIC MP TESTS FOR OLIVE OIL, GLYCEROL, AND 143
OLEIC ACID
5.4 CONCLUSIONS 149
CONNECTING STATEMENT (Forth scientific article) 150
6 ANAEROBIC TREATMENT OF FOOD WASTE: IMPACT OF A STEP- 151
WISE, TEMPERATURE INCREASE FROM THERMOPHILIC TO
HYPERTHERMOPHILIC CONDITIONS
6.0 ABSTRACT 151
6.1 INTRODUCTION 152
6.2 METHODOLOGY 155
6
CONTENTS (Continuation)
Chapter TITLE Page
6.2.1 REACTOR SET-UP AND SUBSTRATE 155
6.2.2 EXPERIMENTAL STAGES 156
6.2.3 THE SUBSTRATE AND METHANOGENIC ACTIVITY TESTS 157
6.2.4 ANALYTICAL METHODS 159
6.2.5 STATISTICAL ANALYSIS 161
6.3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 161
6.3.1 FIRST TEMPERATURE UPGRADING EXPERIMENT (T1) 161
6.3.2 SECOND TEMPERATURE UPGRADING EXPERIMENT (T2) 167
6.3.3 THERMOPHILIC AND HYPERTHERMOPHILIC ACTIVITY TESTS (MA AND SA) 172
6.4 CONCLUSIONS 180
7 CONCLUSIONS 182
7.1 SUMMARY 182
7.2 CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE 183
7.3 FUTURE WORK 185
7.4 GENERAL LIST OF REFERENCES 185
7 LUIS ORTEGA CHARLESTON
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE PAGE
2.1.1 Solid waste generation. 32
2.2.1 Metabolic pathway of anaerobic digestion (Gujer and Zehnder, 1983). 47
2.2.2 Cellobiose’s molecular structure. 50
2.2.3 Protease mechanism; a) Trypsin and b) Chymotrypsin (Rawn, 1990). 52
2.2.4 Lipase activity at the level of human intestine (Rawn, 1990). 53
2.2.5 Acetate formation during fermentative and β-oxidative activities. 54
2.2.6 Acetoclastic methanogenesis. 56
2.2.7 The H -dependent pathway of CO reduction to CH in M. 58
2 2 4
thermoautotrophicum (Reeve et al. 1997).
2.3.1 Overview of possible pre and post-treatment technologies in OFMSW 60
digestion.
2.3.2 Typical design of a one-stage wet system (Waasa, Finland). 62
2.3.3 Typical designs of one-stage dry systems: A) Dranco, B) Kompogas and BRV 64
and C) Valorga.
2.3.4 Typical design of two-stage systems (“dry-dry” or “wet-wet”). 67
2.5.1 Temperatures range for anaerobic digestion. 71
3.1 Schematic diagram of the batch reactor system. 91
3.2 Gas production profile during the C0 stage. 96
3.3 Daily and accumulated gas production profile from stages C1 to C4. 100
3.4 Daily pH profile from stages C1 to C4. 101
3.5 Daily gas composition from stages C1 to C4. 102
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