Potential of Wastewater-Treating Anaerobic Granules for Biomethanation of Synthesis Gas

Gasification of biomass produces a mixture of gas (mainly carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO(2)), and hydrogen (H(2))) called synthesis gas, or syngas, by thermal degradation without combustion. Syngas can be used for heat or electricity production by thermochemical processes. This project aims at developing an alternative way to bioupgrade syngas into biogas (mainly methane), via anaerobic fermentation. Nonacclimated industrial granular sludge to be used as reactor inoculum was initially evaluated for mesophilic carboxydotrophic methanogenesis potential in batch tests at 4 and 8 mmol CO/g VSS.d, in the absence and presence of H(2) and CO(2), respectively. Granular sludge was then introduced into a 30 L gas-lift reactor and supplied with CO, to study the production of methane and other metabolites, at different gas dilutions as well as feeding and recirculation rates. A maximal CO conversion efficiency of 75%, which was gas-liquid mass transfer limited, occurred at a CO partial pressure of 0.6 atm combined with a gas recirculation ratio of 20:1. The anaerobic granule potential for methanogenesis from CO was likely hydrogenotrophic, combined with CO-dependent H(2) formation, either under mesophilic or thermophilic conditions. Thermophilic conditions provide the anaerobic granules with a CO-bioconversion potential significantly larger (5-fold) than under mesophilic conditions, so long as the gas-liquid transfer is alleviated.