Estudio de la generación de gas metano a partir del agua residual del proceso de extracción de aceite crudo de palma en biodigestores experimentales

The aim of the present study is to determine the rate of methane generation in experimental bioreactors at laboratory scale, using acetate as a substrate and as microbial inoculum water and sludge from wastewater treatment lagoons from a Palm Oil Mill located in the province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Influent wastewater showed high concentrations of total and soluble chemical oxigen demand (COD), total solids (TS) and volatile solids (VS) and an acid pH. The specific methanogenic activities (SMA) of water and sludge from the lagoons are very low, 0.032 and 0.035 gCOD-CH 4 gVSS -1 d -1 respectively, nevertheless the activity of the bioreactor mixed liquor after 171 d of operation increases to 0.60 gCOD-CH 4 gVSS -1 d -1 . The biodigester was fed with a COD loading rate of 0.28 gCOD acetate L -1 d -1 , a COD removal percentage of 89.2% and a methane generation rate of 1.17·10 -3 mol CH 4 L -1 d -1 was reached.