Rm. Dinsdale et al., Two-stage anaerobic co-digestion of waste activated sludge and fruit/vegetable waste using inclined tubular digesters, BIORES TECH, 72(2), 2000, pp. 159-168
The anaerobic co-digestion of a 10% total solids (7.4% VS) waste activated
sludge/fruit and vegetable mixture with approximately 25% of the VS arising
from the fruit and vegetable waste was studied in duplicate two-stage syst
ems. Acidogenic CSTRs and methanogenic inclined tubular digesters operated
at 30 degrees C achieved stable anaerobic digestion at an overall system lo
ading rate of 5.7 kg VS m(-3) d(-1), overall HRT of 13 days (3 day acidogen
ic HRT, 10 day methanogenic HRT), with 40% VS destruction and a system biog
as yield of 0.37 m(3) kg VS-1 added. The biogas methane content was 68% and
bicarbonate alkalinity in the methanogenic stage was over 4000 mg CaCO3 l(
-1), although TVFA levels were relatively high at 1300 mg l(-1). By increas
ing the overall system HRT to 17 days (system OLR 4.3 kg VS m(-3) d(-1)) wi
th the methanogenic HRT increased to 13 days, the average TVFA in the metha
nogenic stage was reduced to 300 mg l(-1) and the overall VS destruction wa
s 44%. Using these results an embodiment design was developed for a full-sc
ale plant. The duty cycle was such that HRTs could vary from 4 to 26 days i
n the case of the acidogenic stage and 10 to 65 days in the case of the met
hanogenic stage. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.