Paper details

Title:

Effects of Mechanical and Enzymatic Treatment of Digestates after Anaerobic Digestion on the Degree of Degradation

Author(s):

Lindner, J., Miroshnichenko, I., Zielonka, S., Oechsner, H., Lemmer, A.

Document(s):

Abstract:

The anaerobic degradation of lignocellulose rich substrates is limited by the non-covalent forces and by the covalent cross-linkageswhichprotected the cellulose againstenzymaticattacks. Mechanicalsubstratepre-treatment is a common praxis to enhance the digestibility. The main disadvantages of these methods are high energy consump­tion and losses of volatile substances. Therefore, the key idea of this study was to apply a mechanical and enzymatic treatment to theeffluentafter fermentation and return the processed material back into the digester. By that, only the non-degraded fibers have to be processed.. To investigate this approach, digestates were milled with a ball mill for two different treatment times, and subsequently incubated with the aerobic fungi “lentinulaedodes” to macerate the lignin. The effects on the losses of volatile solids, on the carbon contents, on the structural substances and on the methane yields were investigated.The treatment with the aerobic fungi displayed losses of volatile solids by 36 % in maximum.Substrates with low lignin content exhibited a decrease in the methane yield by 86 % for this treat­ment.However, anincrease of the methane yield by 137 %of substrates with high lignin content was observed.

Keywords:

anaerobic digestion, lignocellulose, methane yield, digestate, aerobic fungi

Topic:

Biomass Conversion Technologies for Heating, Cooling and Electricity

Subtopic:

Anaerobic digestion for biogas production

Event:

23rd European Biomass Conference and Exhibition

Session:

2CO.14.4

Pages:

619 - 624

ISBN:

978-88-89407-516

Paper DOI:

10.5071/23rdEUBCE2015-2CO.14.4

Price:

FREE