Performance of an Innovative Two-Stage Process Converting Food Waste to Hydrogen and Methane

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of an innovative two-stage process, BIOCELL, that was developed to produce hydrogen (H 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ) from food waste on the basis of phase separation, reactor rotation mode, and sequential batch technique. The BIOCELL process consisted of four leaching-bed reactors for H 2 recovery and post-treatment and a UASB reactor for CH 4 recovery. The leaching-bed reactors were operated in a rotation mode with a 2-day interval between degradation stages. /kg VS added , respectively. Moreover, the output from the posttreatment could be used as a soil amendment. The BIOCELL process proved to be stable, reliable, and effective in resource recovery as well as waste stabilization. INTRODUCTIONThe generation of food waste reaches 11,237 t/day in Korea, accounting for 23.2% of municipal solid waste. 1 Because of its high volatile solids (85-95%) and moisture content (75-85%), food waste causes decay, odor, and leachate in collection and transportation. Most food

Acidogenic fermentation of Scenedesmus sp.-AMDD: Comparison of volatile fatty acids yields between mesophilic and thermophilic conditions

“…Under steady-state conditions, a mean hydrogen production of roughly 20 ± 3 mL g -1 TVS was observed for R55 with a hydrogen content of 42 ± 1.1 % in the biogas. This is comparable to that reported in literature for various complex substrates (Han and Shin, 2004;Luo et al, 2010;Zhu et al, 2008) and lipidextracted Scenedesmus biomass (Yang et al, 2010). This study however is the first work on a continuous hydrogen production through dark fermentation of microalgal biomass.…”

Achieving high-rate hydrogen recovery from wastewater using customizable alginate polymer gel matrices encapsulating biomass

“…59 In fact, similar hydrogen production rates were produced in the system described here at room temperature when compared to other (non-encapsulated) systems operated at 37°C. 9,10,60 The use of encapsulated biomass, however, has additional advantages. Different specific microbial consortia can be encapsulated in alginate beads.…”

Performance characteristics of a two‐stage dark fermentative system producing hydrogen and methane continuously

“…Maximum loading rates and chemical oxygen demand (COD) elimination in the methanogenic stage of a two-stage system operating on glucose were over two times higher than the single stage, with process stability also improved (Cohen et al, 1980;Speece, 1996). The process was applied in the treatment of wastes including sewage sludge (Lin and Ouyang, 1993), dairy wastewater (Ince, 1998), instant coffee waste (Dinsdale et al, 1997), food waste (Han and Shin, 2004) and agro-industrial wastes (Weiland, 1993). Results show that the two-stage process improved digestibility.…”

“…The equivalent sodium concentration would be 3.24 g/L (Hawkes et al, 1993), depressing methane production in any subsequent methanogenic stage. On the other hand, Han and Shin (2004) in their two-stage system producing hydrogen and methane from food waste and where process effluent was recycled as dilution water, continually monitored sodium concentration for fear of accumulation of sodium and the consequent toxicity. The process effluent was exchanged once every 25 days with prepared dilution water by 40%.…”