Premium
Methane Production from the Soluble Fraction of Distillers' Dried Grains with Solubles in Anaerobic Sequencing Batch Reactors
Author(s) -
Cassidy D. P.,
Hirl P. J.,
Belia E.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143007x221517
Subject(s) - chemical oxygen demand , chemistry , methane , biogas , distillers grains , fraction (chemistry) , anaerobic digestion , volatile suspended solids , sequencing batch reactor , total dissolved solids , pulp and paper industry , waste management , food science , chromatography , environmental science , wastewater , environmental engineering , organic chemistry , engineering
Methane production from the soluble fraction of distillers' dried grains with solubles, a co‐product of ethanol production, was studied in 2‐L anaerobic sequencing batch reactors (ASBRs) under 10 different operating conditions. Methane production and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal were quantified for a wide range of operating parameters. Chemical oxygen demand removals of 64 to 95% were achieved at organic loading rates ranging from 1.5 to 22.2 g COD/L · d, solids retention times from 8 to 40 days, and food‐to‐microorganism ratios ranging from 0.4 to 1.9 g COD/g volatile suspended solids (VSS) · d. Biogas methane content varied from 61 to 74%, with 0.29 L CH 4 produced/g COD removed. Roughly 56% of the influent COD and 84% of the COD removed in the ASBRs was converted to methane. Microbial yield ( Y ) and decay ( b ) constants were determined to be Y = 0.126 g VSS/g COD removed and b = 0.032 day −1 , respectively. Methane produced from co‐products can reduce the costs and fossil‐fuel consumption of ethanol manufacture.