Abstract
Purpose
Microalgae present promising green economy applications in the energy and biorefinery sectors. The work concerns a pilot study on the integration of anaerobic digestion with microalgae cultivation for managing at the same time emissions and digestate from the dry anaerobic treatment of organic waste.
Methods
Biogas produced was used to feed Solid Oxide Fuel Cell after a filtering step for removing toxic compounds. The exhausts and digestate were used for providing carbon and nutrients for microalgae growth. The experimental workflow includes the characterization of both for defining their suitability in the microalgal growth (Chlorella vulgaris) tests.
Results
The exhausts of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells showed relatively stable concentration of CH4 (4–7%) and CO2 (93–96%) and low concentrations (sub ppm(v)) of sulphur, carbonyl and carboxyl, and aromatic compounds and terpenes, making it particularly suited for algae growing as compared with internal combustion engines. The challenging growing conditions are a compromise between carbon recovery and use of digestate. A good microalgae growth has been obtained (22.31 mm3 mL−1 of biovolume corresponding to 151 dry mg L−1 day−1) exploiting ammonia and phosphate from dilute digestate (removal efficiency 94% and 30% respectively) as well as a good carbon recovering (310 mg CO2 L−1 day−1).
Conclusions
Based on our data, the integration of microalgae growth and anaerobic digestion process seems a viable solution to achieve (i) reduced emissions due to carbon recovery; (ii) optimum integrated management of anaerobic digestion waste and (iii) biomass production by low-cost nutrients and carbon.
Graphic Abstract
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Prajapati, S.K., Kumar, P., Malik, A., Vijay, V.K.: Bioconversion of algae to methane and subsequent utilization of digestate for algae cultivation: a closed loop bioenergy generation process. Bioresour. Technol. 158, 174–180 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2014.02.023
Zhu, L.: Biorefinery as a promising approach to promote microalgae industry: an innovative framework. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 41, 1376–1384 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.09.040
Cheng, J., Xu, J., Huang, Y., Li, Y., Zhou, J., Cen, K.: Growth optimisation of microalga mutant at high CO2 concentration to purify undiluted anaerobic digestion effluent of swine manure. Bioresour. Technol. 177, 240–246 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2014.11.099
Xia, A., Murphy, J.D.: Microalgal cultivation in treating liquid digestate from biogas systems. Trends Biotechnol. 34, 264–275 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2015.12.010
Marcilhac, C., Sialve, B., Pourcher, A.M., Ziebal, C., Bernet, N., Béline, F.: Digestate color and light intensity affect nutrient removal and competition phenomena in a microalgal-bacterial ecosystem. Water Res. 64, 278–287 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2014.07.012
Wang, L., Li, Y., Chen, P., Min, M., Chen, Y., Zhu, J., Ruan, R.R.: Anaerobic digested dairy manure as a nutrient supplement for cultivation of oil-rich green microalgae Chlorella sp. Bioresour. Technol. 101, 2623–2628 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2009.10.062
Kumar, M.S., Miao, Z.H., Wyatt, S.K.: Influence of nutrient loads, feeding frequency and inoculum source on growth of Chlorellavulgaris in digested piggery effluent culture medium. Bioresour. Technol. 101, 6012–6018 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2010.02.080
Cheah, W.Y., Show, P.L., Chang, J.S., Ling, T.C., Juan, J.C.: Biosequestration of atmospheric CO2 and flue gas-containing CO2 by microalgae. Bioresour. Technol. 184, 190–201 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2014.11.026
Li, S., Luo, S., Guo, R.: Efficiency of CO2 fixation by microalgae in a closed raceway pond. Bioresour. Technol. 136, 267–272 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2013.03.025
Ryu, H.J., Oh, K.K., Kim, Y.S.: Optimization of the influential factors for the improvement of CO2 utilization efficiency and CO2 mass transfer rate. J. Ind. Eng. Chem. 15, 471–475 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiec.2008.12.012
Franchino, M., Comino, E., Bona, F., Riggio, V.A.: Growth of three microalgae strains and nutrient removal from an agro-zootechnical digestate. Chemosphere 92, 738–744 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2013.04.023
Franchino, M., Tigini, V., Varese, G.C., Mussat Sartor, R., Bona, F.: Microalgae treatment removes nutrients and reduces ecotoxicity of diluted piggery digestate. Sci. Total Environ. 569–570, 40–45 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.06.1
Marcilhac, C., Sialve, B., Pourcher, A.M., Ziebal, C., Bernet, N., Béline, F.: Control of nitrogen behaviour by phosphate concentration during microalgal-bacterial cultivation using digestate. Bioresour. Technol. 175, 224–230 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2014.10.022
Uggetti, E., Sialve, B., Latrille, E., Steyer, J.P.: Anaerobic digestate as substrate for microalgae culture: the role of ammonium concentration on the microalgae productivity. Bioresour. Technol. 152, 437–443 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2013.11.036
Van Den Hende, S., Vervaeren, H., Boon, N.: Flue gas compounds and microalgae: bio-chemical interactions leading to biotechnological opportunities. Biotechnol. Adv. 30, 1405–1424 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2012.02.015
Santarelli, M., Briesemeister, L., Gandiglio, M., Herrmann, S., Kuczynski, P., Kupecki, J., Lanzini, A., Llovell, F., Papurello, D., Spliethoff, H., Swiatkowski, B., Torres-Sanglas, J., Vega, L.F.: Carbon recovery and re-utilization (CRR) from the exhaust of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC): analysis through a proof-of-concept. J. CO2 Util. 18, 206–221 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcou.2017.01.014
Papurello, D., Lanzini, A., Tognana, L., Silvestri, S., Santarelli, M.: Waste to energy: exploitation of biogas from organic waste in a 500 Wel solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack. Energy 85, 145–158 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2015.03.093
Papurello, D., Silvestri, S., Tomasi, L., Belcari, I., Biasioli, F., Santarelli, M.: Biowaste for SOFCs. Energy Procedia 101, 424–431 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2016.11.054
Coppola, G., Papurello, D.: Biogas cleaning: activated carbon regeneration for H2S removal. Clean Technol. (2018). https://doi.org/10.3390/cleantechnol1010004
Papurello, D., Soukoulis, C., Schuhfried, E., Cappellin, L., Gasperi, F., Silvestri, S., Santarelli, M., Biasioli, F.: Monitoring of volatile compound emissions during dry anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste by proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Bioresour. Technol. 126, 254–265 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2012.09.033
Erickson, M.H., Wallace, H.W., Jobson, B.T.: Quantification of diesel exhaust gas phase organics by a thermal desorption proton transfer reaction mass spectrometer. Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss. 12, 5389–5423 (2012). https://doi.org/10.5194/acpd-12-5389-2012
Realtime engine exhaust analysis with ultrasensitive PTRTOFMS major reasons customers choose PTRTOFMS to monitor exhaust emissions: examples of realtime engines emission monitoring [WWW Document]. Spons. by IONICON Anal. (2017)
Ghimenti, S., Lomonaco, T., Bellagambi, F.G., Tabucchi, S., Onor, M., Trivella, M.G., Ceccarini, A., Fuoco, R., Di Francesco, F.: Comparison of sampling bags for the analysis of volatile organic compounds in breath. J. Breath Res. (2015). https://doi.org/10.1088/1752-7155/9/4/047110
Cappellin, L., Loreto, F., Aprea, E., Romano, A., Sánchez del Pulgar, J., Gasperi, F., Biasioli, F.: PTR-MS in Italy: a multipurpose sensor with applications in environmental, agri-food and health science. Sensors (Switzerland) 13, 11923–11955 (2013). https://doi.org/10.3390/s130911923
Biasioli, F., Yeretzian, C., Märk, T.D., Dewulf, J., Van Langenhove, H.: Direct-injection mass spectrometry adds the time dimension to (B)VOC analysis. TrAC Trends Anal. Chem. 30, 1003–1017 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trac.2011.04.005
Liu, D., Nyord, T., Rong, L., Feilberg, A.: Real-time quantification of emissions of volatile organic compounds from land spreading of pig slurry measured by PTR-MS and wind tunnels. Sci. Total Environ. 639, 1079–1087 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.149
Papurello, D., Boschetti, A., Silvestri, S., Khomenko, I., Biasioli, F.: Real-time monitoring of removal of trace compounds with PTR-MS: biochar experimental investigation. Renew. Energy (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.02.122
Scaglia, B., Orzi, V., Artola, A., Font, X., Davoli, E., Sanchez, A., Adani, F.: Odours and volatile organic compounds emitted from municipal solid waste at different stage of decomposition and relationship with biological stability. Bioresour. Technol. 102, 4638–4645 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2011.01.016
Chioccioli, M., Hankamer, B., Ross, I.L.: Flow cytometry pulse width data enables rapid and sensitive estimation of biomass dry weight in the microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Chlorella vulgaris. PLoS ONE 9, 1–12 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0097269
APHA-AWWA-WPCF, 2018 APHA-AWWA-WPCF: Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 23rd edn. APHA-AWWA-WPCF, Washington (2018)
Ketheesan, B., Nirmalakhandan, N.: Feasibility of microalgal cultivation in a pilot-scale airlift-driven raceway reactor. Bioresour. Technol. 108, 196–202 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2011.12.146
Anjos, M., Fernandes, B.D., Vicente, A.A., Teixeira, J.A., Dragone, G.: Optimization of CO2 bio-mitigation by Chlorella vulgaris. Bioresour. Technol. 139, 149–154 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2013.04.032
Perez-Garcia, O., De Bashan, L.E., Hernandez, J.P., Bashan, Y.: Efficiency of growth and nutrient uptake from wastewater by heterotrophic, autotrophic, and mixotrophic cultivation of Chlorellavulgaris immobilized with Azospirillum brasilense. J. Phycol. 46, 800–812 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1529-8817.2010.00862.x
González-Gonzáles, L.M., Zhou, L., Astals, R., Thomas-Hall, S.R., Eltanahy, E., Pratt, S., Jensen, P.D., Schenk, P.M.: Biogas production coupled to repeat microalgae cultivation using a closed nutrient loop. Bioresour. Technol. 263, 625–630 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2018.05.039
Källqvist, T., Svenson, A.: Assessment of ammonia toxicity in tests with the microalga, Nephroselmis pyriformis. Chlorophyta. Water Res. 37, 477–484 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0043-1354(02)00361-5
Ledda, C., Idà, A., Allemand, D., Mariani, P., Adani, F.: Production of wild Chlorella sp. cultivated in digested and membrane-pretreated swine manure derived from a full-scale operation plant. Algal Res. 12, 68–73 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2015.08.010
Fuchs, W., Drosg, B.: Assessment of the state of the art of technologies for the processing of digestate residue from anaerobic digesters. Water Sci. Technol. 67, 1984–1993 (2013)
Marazzi, F., Sambusiti, C., Monlau, F., Cecere, S.E., Scaglione, D., Barakat, A., Mezzanotte, V., Ficara, E.: A novel option for reducing the optical density of liquid digestate to achieve a more productive microalgal culturing. Algal Res. 24, 19–28 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2017.03.014
Passero, M., Cragin, B., Coats, E.R., McDonald, A.G., Feris, K.: Dairy wastewaters for algae cultivation, polyhydroxyalkanote reactor effluent versus anaerobic digester effluent. Bioenerg. Res. 8, 1647–1660 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-015-9619-9
Roushanafshar, M., Luo, J.L., Chuang, K.T., Sanger, A.R.: Effect of hydrogen sulfide on electrochemical oxidation of syngas for SOFC applications. ECS Trans. 35, 2799–2804 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1149/1.3570279
Kupecki, J., Papurello, D., Lanzini, A., Naumovich, Y., Motylinski, K., Blesznowski, M., Santarelli, M.: Numerical model of planar anode supported solid oxide fuel cell fed with fuel containing H2S operated in direct internal reforming mode (DIR-SOFC). Appl. Energy 230, 1573–1584 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2018.09.092
Sydney, E.B., Sturm, W., de Carvalho, J.C., Soccol, V.T., Larroche, C., Pandey, A., Soccol, C.R.: Potential carbon dioxide fixation by industrially important microalgae. Bioresour. Technol. 101, 5892–5896 (2010)
Sing, S.P., Singh, P.: Effect of CO2 concentration on algal growth: a review. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 38, 172–179 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.05.0433
Razzak, S.A., Ali, S.A.M., Hossain, M.M., DeLasa, H.: Biological CO2 fixation with production of microalgae in wastewater—a review. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 76, 379–390 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.02.038
González-Fernández, C., Molinuevo-Salces, B., García-González, M.C.: Nitrogen transformations under different conditions in open ponds by means of microalgae–bacteria consortium treating pig slurry. Bioresour. Technol. 102, 960–966 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2010.09.052
Gilles, S., Gerard, L., Daniel, C., Ngansoumana, B., Carla, I.L., Jacob, N., Allassane, O., Ousséni, O., Xavier, L.: Mutualism between euryhaline tilapia, Sarotherodon melanotheron heudelotii and Chlorella sp.—implications for nano-algal production in warmwater phytoplankton-based recirculating systems. Aquac. Eng. 39, 113–121 (2008)
Pires, J.C.M., Alvim-Ferraz, M.C.M., Martins, F.G., Simoes, M.: Carbon dioxide capture from flue gases using microalgae: engineering aspects and biorefinery concept. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 16, 3043–3053 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2012.02.055
an der Ha, D., Bundervoet, B., Verstraete, W., Boon, N.: A sustainable, carbon neutral methane oxidation by a partnership of methane oxidizing communities and microalgae. Water Res. 45, 2845–2854 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2011.03.005
Rillo, E., Gandiglio, M., Lanzini, A., Bobba, S., Santarelli, M., Blengini, G.: Life cycle assessment (LCA) of biogas-fed solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) plant. Energy 126, 585–602 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.03.041
Evangelisti, S., Lettieri, P., Clift, R., Borello, D.: Distributed generation by energy from waste technology: a life cycle perspective. Process. Saf. Environ. Prot. 93, 161–172 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psep.2014.03.008
Acknowledgements
This research is part of the BWS project carried out with Fondazione Edmund Mach and SOLIDpower SpA. The project was co-funded by Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Trento e Rovereto (Grant Number, 2014.0377).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bona, D., Papurello, D., Flaim, G. et al. Management of Digestate and Exhausts from Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Produced in the Dry Anaerobic Digestion Pilot Plant: Microalgae Cultivation Approach. Waste Biomass Valor 11, 6499–6514 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-019-00931-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12649-019-00931-3