Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Exhibit Hall
The performance and the behaviour of acidogenic fermentation fed with sugar beets harvested at three different times and cow manure or swine manure were investigated in this laboratory-scale work. The main objective of this study was to enhance methane production of sugar beets and shorten the anaerobic digestion time with acidogenic pretreatment. The results of pretreatment indicated that sCOD of hydrolysates of substrates increased significantly in the early stage, and peaked on day 1. During pretreatment, acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid were the predominant volatile organic products in hydrolysates. The pH of mixture substrates decreased to 3.6 on day 5. Acidogenic fermentation improved the degradation ability of sugar beets, and the weight loss of sugar beets reached approximate 90%. The results of anaerobic digestion showed that methane production yields and rates of the six mixture substrates significantly increased after acidogenic fermentation. This study is the first attempt to explore the acidogenic fermentation method for anaerobic digestion of sugar beets. Acidogenic pretreatment could be an effective method for shortening digestion time and enhancing methane production of sugar beets into bioenergy.