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Anaerobic digestion of slaughterhouse waste in batch and anaerobic sequential batch reactors

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Abstract

This work focuses on the design of an effective treatment process for slaughterhouse waste management. Four different treatment sequences were proposed, based on aerobic and anaerobic technologies, as well as thermal and centrifugation pre-treatments. Biochemical methane potential tests were carried out to assess the viability in terms of biodegradability and biogas production of the anaerobic digestion units, which involved different substrates for each proposed process (raw slaughterhouse wastewater, thermal pre-treated slaughterhouse activated sludge, supernatant of thermal pre-treated slaughterhouse sludge, and co-digestion mixture of slaughterhouse wastewater and supernatant of thermal pre-treated slaughterhouse sludge). The obtained results showed that thermal pre-treatment is not effective by itself. However, if it is followed by centrifugation, organic matter removal is importantly improved. In addition, removal efficiency reached 76.0% when employing a co-digestion mixture. Kinetic analyses showed that the specific constant rate of the mixture was 1.5 times higher than with the sole supernatant. Afterwards, the co-digestion mixture was employed as a substrate for an anaerobic sequencing batch reactor working under a semi-continuous operational mode. The influence of organic load rate (OLR) on organic matter removal and biogas production was studied. The best operational OLR range was 1.16–2.16 kg/m3•d, achieving 87.8% of chemical oxygen demand removal and 0.23 LCH4/Ldigester·d of methane production rate. A faster organic load rate than 2.88 kg/m3•d led to bioreactor destabilisation. The obtained results were competitive against published studies that employed different anaerobic technologies and made progress towards the industrial implementation of effective technology in slaughterhouse facilities.

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Abbreviations

AD:

Anaerobic digestion

ACoD:

Anaerobic co-digestion

AS:

Active sludge

AnSBR:

Anaerobic sequencing batch reactor

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand (kg/m3)

CODs:

Soluble chemical oxygen demand (kg/m3)

CODt:

Total chemical oxygen demand (kg/m3)

HRT:

Hydraulic retention time (d)

K:

Specific constant rate from the modified Gompertz model (NLCH4/kgSV0·d)

SWW:

Slaughterhouse wastewater

TS:

Total solids (kg/m3)

TSS:

Thermal pre-treated slaughterhouse sludge

STSS:

Supernatant of thermal pre-treated slaughterhouse sludge

VFA:

Volatile fatty acids

VS:

Volatile solids (kg/m3)

XCH4:

Percentage of methane in the biogas (%)

YCH4MAX:

Maximum methane yield from the modified Gompertz model (NLCH4/kgSV0)

λ:

Lag-phase parameter from the modified Gompertz model (d

CH4:

Relating to methane

COD:

Relating to chemical oxygen demand

Exp:

Relating to experimental data

Digester:

Relating to the operating volume

Removal:

Relating to degradation of organic matter

VS:

Relating to volatile solids

VS0:

Relating to initial volatile solids

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Funding

This work was supported by the 2020 European Horizon research and the innovation programme “Water2Return” (grant number 73098).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Technologies, University of Cadiz, Campus de Puerto Real, 11500, Puerto Real, Cadiz, Spain

    Vanessa Ripoll, Cristina Agabo-García, Rosario Solera & Montserrat Perez

  2. Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (UFV), Ctra. Pozuelo-Majadahonda km 1.800, 28223, Pozuelo de Alarcón, Madrid, Spain

    Vanessa Ripoll

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Contributions

Vanessa Ripoll: methodology, validation, formal analysis, data curation, writing (original draft), visualisation. Cristina Agabo-García: validation, formal analysis, data curation, writing (original draft), visualisation. Rosario Solera: conceptualisation; resources; data curation; writing, review and editing; supervision; project administration; funding acquisition. Montserrat Perez: conceptualisation; resources; data curation; writing, review and editing; supervision; project administration; funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Montserrat Perez.

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Highlights

• Application of circular economy principles in slaughterhouse industries

• Supernatant of treated slaughterhouse sludge as co-substrate of anaerobic digestion

• Biomethane productivity and specific rate were improved by co-digestion

• AnSBR as an effective technology to manage slaughterhouse wastes

• 80% of depuration grade and 0.21 L/g of methane productivity were achieved

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Ripoll, V., Agabo-García, C., Solera, R. et al. Anaerobic digestion of slaughterhouse waste in batch and anaerobic sequential batch reactors. Biomass Conv. Bioref. 13, 11457–11468 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13399-021-02179-1

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