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Role of the Thickness of Medium on Solid-State Anaerobic Digestion

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Abstract

In solid-state anaerobic digestion, the production of methane is limited compared to liquid-state anaerobic digestion. One of the possible reasons of this limitation could be the reduction of the diffusion of the molecules due to the high total solid content, creating local inhibitory environment. This study investigates the effect of the thickness of the reaction environment and by extension the effect of the diffusion on solid-state anaerobic digestion to evaluate this hypothesis. Two kind of anaerobic reactors with different thicknesses of a wheat-straw based medium (1.0 and 4.2 cm) were investigated for 33 days. The results showed an inhibition of methanogenesis for 4.2 cm height, which generated a gradient of propionate all along the medium thickness. This gradient was likely due to a local accumulation of H2, and a high partial pressure of hydrogen can result in an inhibition of the hydrolysis step. This result could explain why a high total solid content in solid-state anaerobic digestion results in an inhibition of the global anaerobic digestion, due to the local accumulation of inhibitory products. Therefore, mixing of solid-state anaerobic digester is mandatory to improve the methane production.

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Funding

This work was supported by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME).

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  1. E. A. Cazier

    Present address: Sciences and Humanities Confluence Research Center, Université Catholique, 10 rue des Archives, 69002, Lyon, France

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRAE, University of Montpellier, LBE, 102 Avenue des Etangs, 11100, Narbonne, France

    E. A. Cazier, E. Trably, J. P. Steyer & R. Escudie

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  1. E. A. Cazier
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  2. E. Trably
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  4. R. Escudie
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EAC did the experimentation and the writing of the paper, ET, RE supervised and reviewed the paper, JPS reviewed the paper.

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Correspondence to E. A. Cazier.

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Cazier, E.A., Trably, E., Steyer, J.P. et al. Role of the Thickness of Medium on Solid-State Anaerobic Digestion. Waste Biomass Valor 13, 2871–2880 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-022-01698-w

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