Pretreatment of anaerobic digestion feedstock in a vortex layer apparatus: effect of the working chamber ferromagnetic core on biogas production

   Currently, the volume of waste generation is growing at a high rate. Anaerobic digestion is an effective way to process organic waste to produce biogas. To increase the bioavailability and efficiency of mass transfer between substrate particles and microorganisms, it is advisable to pre-treat organic waste using various methods. One of the most promising and energy-efficient methods for preparing a substrate for anaerobic bioconversion is its processing in a vortex layer apparatus (VLA). However, there are some limitations in the VLA operation. Thus, to exclude the stagnant central zone from the volume of the working chamber and increase the magnitude of the magnetic field in the working chamber of the vortex layer apparatus, a ferromagnetic core in the form of a steel pipe was coaxially mounted.

   Thus, the purpose of this work is to experimentally study the effect of the ferromagnetic core of the working chamber of the vortex layer apparatus on the production of biogas during anaerobic bioconversion of a model of organic waste from the agricultural sector.

   To achieve this goal, an experimental plant was developed and created. The experimental data obtained suggest the high efficiency of pre-treatment of the feedstock in VLA with a ferromagnetic core in the working chamber before anaerobic bioconversion. The developed anaerobic bioconversion system made it possible to increase the methane production rate by 287 % with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 4 days and by 3.5 times with a HRT of 2 days compared to the control. At the same time, the methane yield with a HRT of 4 days increases by 43 %, and with a HRT of 2 days, it decreases by 14%. The hydrogen sulfide content in biogas also increases more than three times, while no hydrogen was detected in the biogas. Thus, pretreatment of the feedstock in VLA with a ferromagnetic core to produce biohythane in a one-stage anaerobic bioconversion system is impractical.

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