Sunday, May 3, 2009
7-07
Biohydrogen production from kitchen waste as primary treatment and novel materials for microbial fuel fells (MFCs) as secondary treatment in a sewage sequential treatment chain
Ludo Diels, Deepak Pant, Doga Arslan, Gilbert Van Bogaert, Baris Calli, Heleen De Wever, and Karolien Vanbroekhoven. Separation and Conversion Technology, Flemish Institute for Technological Research (VITO), Boeretang 200, Mol, Belgium
The realisation that society has to adopt a more sustainable life style implies the reduction of waste and the search for alternative energy sources. Several industries are faced with concentrated streams that are considered waste or byproducts during the production process. In general, a large fraction of these waste streams is organic and thus still comprises a considerable amount of energy. Since each stream has a different composition, not all are useful for energy recovery processes like anaerobic digestion. In this study, domestic wastewater is given a second life as dilution or pretreatment medium for the concentrated waste streams. Currently, domestic wastewater is treated in conventional sewage wastewater treatment plants by means of aerobic activated sludge systems. Energy needs to be supplied at about 15 kWh per inhabitant per year. Thus, by adding the wastewater to the concentrated waste streams the suitability of the latter for use in anaerobic digestion is increased on one hand while the amount of wastewater to be treated in conventional aerobic treatment is reduced on the other hand.
Biohydrogen reactors are used to treat sewage enriched by the organic fraction of household wastes, also referred to as kitchen waste or by the waste streams from university restaurants. The biogas produced from these matrices, both at mesophilic and thermophilic conditions is continuously monitored, besides hydrolysis of the solids and formation of all fermentation products. Results on the experiments will be presented, and potential optimization actions will be addressed.
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