Food waste and sewage sludge co-digestion amended with different biochars: VFA kinetics, methane yield and digestate quality assessment

Davidraj Johnravindar, Jonathan W.C. Wong, Debkumar Chakraborty, Govardhan Bodedla, Guneet Kaur*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)
98 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This work investigated the impact of the addition of different biochar types on mitigation of volatile fatty acid (VFA) accumulation, methane recovery and digestate quality in mesophilic food waste-sludge co-digestion. Four biochars derived from agricultural and sludge residues under different pyrolysis temperatures were compared. Specific biochar properties such as pH, surface area, chemical properties and presence of surface functional groups likely influenced biochar reactions during digestion, thereby resulting in a varying performance of different biochars. Miscanthus straw biochar addition led to the highest specific methane yield of 307 ± 0.3 mL CH4/g VSadded versus 241.87 ± 5.9 mL CH4/g VSadded from control with no biochar addition over 30 days of the co-digestion period. Biochar supplementation led to enhanced process stability which likely resulted from improved syntrophic VFA oxidation facilitated by specific biochar properties. Overall, a 21.4% increase in the overall methane production was obtained with biochar addition as compared to control. The resulting digestate quality was also investigated. Biochar-amended digester generated a digestate rich in macro- and micro-nutrients including K, Mg, Ca, Fe making biochar-amended digestate a potential replacement of agricultural lime fertilizer. This work demonstrated that the addition of specific biochars with desirable properties alleviated VFA accumulation and facilitated enhanced methane recovery, thereby providing a means to achieve process stability even under high organic loading conditions in co-digestions. Moreover, the availability of biochar-enriched digestate with superior characteristics than biochar-free digestate adds further merit to this process.

Original languageEnglish
Article number112457
Number of pages11
JournalJournal of Environmental Management
Volume290
Early online date22 Apr 2021
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jul 2021

Scopus Subject Areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Waste Management and Disposal
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

User-Defined Keywords

  • Anaerobic co-digestion
  • Biochar properties
  • Biochar-enriched digestate
  • Food waste
  • Syntrophic oxidation
  • VFA mitigation

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