Effect of various leachate recirculation strategies on batch anaerobic digestion of solid substrates

Publikations-Art

Zeitschriftenbeitrag (peer-reviewed)

Autoren

KUSCH, S., H. OECHSNER and T. JUNGBLUTH

Erscheinungsjahr

2012

Veröffentlicht in

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management

Verlag

Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Band/Volume

9/1-2

ISBN / ISSN / eISSN

14789876

DOI

10.1504/IJEWM.2012.044161

Seite (von - bis)

69-88

Various leachate recirculation strategies were applied to a batch-wise operated solid-phase digestion system in laboratory-scale tests. Comparative experiments with both continuous and intermittentleachate recirculation revealed no advantages of a continuous flow. Results suggest that leachate recirculation should not be carried out continuously during process initialisation when methanogenesis is the rate-limiting step. Continuous watering resulted in the accumulation of Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA) during process start-up. In addition, no need for continuous water circulation was found for the following digestion process when hydrolysis was rate-limiting. Even in the absence of liquid recirculation, degradation was only slightly retarded when the biomass moisture content was adjusted.