Efficiency evaluation of the of using carbon cloth as a carrier material for anaerobic biofilters during the start-up period when processing the liquid fraction of the organic agrowaste dark fermentation effluent

The production and accumulation of various organic wastes increases annually, posing a threat to humanity and the environment: wastes ending up in landfills produce climate-active gases and are filtered into soil and water basins. Anaerobic digestion is a well-known method of biological conversion of organic wastes from livestock complexes. Twostage anaerobic digestion (TAD) with the production of hydrogenand methane-containing biogas, respectively, in the first (dark fermentation) and second (methanogenic) reactors is a promising technology for more complete material and energy conversion of organic matter in wastes. Although TAD is not a new process, information on the process stability and effective operating conditions is limited and often contradictory. In this paper, the effect of carbon cloth as a biomass carrier material on the efficiency of thermophilic methanogenesis of the liquid fraction of dark fermentation effluent during the processing of a model of organic wastes from the agro-industrial complex during the system startup period was studied. The organic matter load in the dark fermentation (DF) reactor was constant (24 g VS/(l day)), while in the methanogenic anaerobic biofilters it was varied by changing the hydraulic retention time (HRT) accordingly from 1,6 to 3,2 days. The average COD content in the influent of anaerobic biofilters was 7400 mg COD/l. On average, the hydrogen production rate of 1,35 l/(l day) and the hydrogen yield of 56,2 ml/g VS were achieved at a hydrogen content in biogas of 47,9% and a pH in the DF reactor of 4,22. The carbon cloth contributed to an increase in the methane yield during the start-up period and made it possible to increase the volumetric methane yield by an average of 25% at steady-state modes at HRT of 3,2 and 2 days. At HRT of 1,6 days, the methane production rate was 70% higher in the reactor with the carbon cloth, however, both reactors operated unstably. It should be noted that anaerobic biofilters used the liquid fraction of dark fermentation effluent as an influent, which is a complex substrate due to its low pH.

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