Abstract
Economic evaluations of the capital costs for anaerobic digestion systems for gas production show that the reactor is a significant cost component. The successful application of high solids digestion of processed MSW (e.g., greater than 10% solids within the digester) would allow a decrease in reactor volume with maintenance of relatively high gas production rates. However, high solids slurries do not mix well in conventional stirred tank reactors. A horizontal shaft, hydraulically driven reactor was designed and fabricated to test the anaerobic digestion of high solids concentrations. Digester performance was evaluated as a function of experimental parameters such as nutrient requirements, feeding rates, pH control, and agitator design/ rotation speed; horsepower of mixing was also evaluated for the reactor. Several startup protocols were examined to obtain a biologically stable anaerobic fermentation at high solids levels.
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Rivard, C.J., Himmel, M.E., Vinzant, T.B. et al. Development of a novel laboratory scale high solids reactor for anaerobic digestion of processed municipal solid wastes for the production of methane. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 20, 461–478 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02936503
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02936503