title: Biogas production from municipal solid wastes using an integrated rotary drum and anaerobic-phased solids digester system.
abstract: This research was conducted to develop an integrated rotary drum reactor (RDR)-anaerobic-phased solids (APS) digester system for the treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) to produce biogas energy and achieve waste reduction. A commercial RDR facility was used to provide a 3-d pretreatment and sufficient separation of the organics from MSW and then the organics were digested in a laboratory APS-digester system for biogas production. The organics generated from the RDR contained 50% total solids (TS) and 36% volatile solids (VS) on wet basis. The APS-digester was started at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 3.1 gVS L(-1) d(-1) and operated at three higher OLRs of 4.6, 7.7 and 9.2 gVS L(-1) d(-1). At the OLR of 9.2 gVS L(-1) d(-1) the system biogas production rate was 3.5 L L(-1) d(-1) and the biogas and methane yields were 0.38 and 0.19 L gVS(-1), respectively. Anaerobic digestion resulted in 38% TS reduction and 53% VS reduction in the organic solids. It was found that the total VFA concentration reached a peak value of 15,000 mg L(-1) as acetic acid in the first 3d of batch digestion and later decreased to about 500 mg L(-1). The APS-digester system remained stable at each OLRs for over 100d with the pH in the hydrolysis reactors in the range of 7.3-7.8 and the pH in the biogasification reactor in 7.9-8.1. The residual solids after the digestion had a high heating value of 14.7 kJ gTS(-1).
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Baoning
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Ruihong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Petros
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gikas
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rapport
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Jenkins
authors.forename: Xiujin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D056804:Biofuels; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D006868:Hydrolysis; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels