title: Treatment of thin stillage in a high-rate anaerobic fluidized bed bioreactor (AFBR).
abstract: The primary objective of this work was to investigate the treatability of thin stillage as a by-product of bioethanol production plants using an anaerobic fluidized bed bioreactor (AFBR) employing zeolite with average diameter of (d(m)) of 425-610 μm and specific surface area (SSA) of 26.5m(2)/g as the carrier media. Despite the very high strength of thin stillage with chemical oxygen demand of 130,000 mg TCOD/L and suspended solids of 47,000 mg TSS/L, the AFBR showed up to 88% TCOD and 78% TSS removal at very high organic and solids loading rates (OLR and SLR) of 29 kg COD/m(3)d and 10.5 kg TSS/m(3)d respectively and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 3.5 days. Methane production rates of up to 160 L/d at the steady state equivalent to 40 L(CH4)/L(thin stillage)d and biogas production rate per reactor volume of 15.8L(gas)/L(reactor)d were achieved.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Mehran
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Andalib
authors.forename: Hisham
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hafez
authors.forename: Elsayed
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Elbeshbishy
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nakhla
authors.forename: Jesse
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D001421:Bacteria, Anaerobic / Q000378:metabolism*; D056804:Biofuels; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D019149:Bioreactors; D008697:Methane / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D010316:Particle Size; D013997:Time Factors; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*; D003313:Zea mays / Q000737:chemistry*; D017641:Zeolites
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D014866:Waste Products; D017641:Zeolites; D008697:Methane