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Two-stage biogas production by co-digesting molasses wastewater and sewage sludge

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Abstract

We evaluated the feasibility of co-digesting molasses wastewater and sewage sludge in a two-stage hydrogen- and methane-producing system. The highest energy was recovered at the 21-h hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the first hydrogenic reactor and at 56-h HRT of the secondary methanogenic reactor. Hence, the two-stage system recovered 1,822 kJ from 1 L of the mixed wastes (19.7: hydrogenic reactor plus, 1,802 kJ L−1: methanogenic reactor). Despite the overloaded VFA-run with a short HRT of 56 h, the GAC-CH4 reactor increased methane production rate and yields due to enhanced pH buffer capacity. An RNA-based community analysis showed that the Ethanoligenens and Methanosaeta dominated the hydrogen and methane bioreactor, respectively. The two-stage system of co-digesting molasses and sewage sludge is particularly cost-effective due to non-pretreatment of sewage sludge.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and future Planning (NRF-2012R1A2A2A03046724).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Global Top 5 Research Program, Ewha Womans University, 52, Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea

    Jung-Yeol Lee, Daehyun Wee & Kyung-Suk Cho

  2. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ewha Womans University, 52, Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea

    Jung-Yeol Lee, Jeonghee Yun, Tae Gwan Kim, Daehyun Wee & Kyung-Suk Cho

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  1. Jung-Yeol Lee
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  2. Jeonghee Yun
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Correspondence to Kyung-Suk Cho.

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Lee, JY., Yun, J., Kim, T.G. et al. Two-stage biogas production by co-digesting molasses wastewater and sewage sludge. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 37, 2401–2413 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-014-1217-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-014-1217-2

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