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Anaerobic Digestion of Algae Biomass to Produce Energy during Wastewater Treatment
Author(s) -
Peng Shanshan,
Colosi Lisa M.
Publication year - 2016
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 - 10.2175/106143014x14062131179195
Subject(s) - anaerobic digestion , biosolids , algae , sewage treatment , wastewater , bioenergy , pulp and paper industry , effluent , environmental science , methane , biofuel , biomass (ecology) , environmental engineering , agronomy , biology , botany , microbiology and biotechnology , ecology , engineering
Water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) are asked to improve both energy efficiency and nutrient removal efficacy. Integration of algaculture offers several potential synergies that could address these goals, including an opportunity to leverage anaerobic digestion at WRRFs. In this study, bench‐scale experiments are used to measure methane yield during co‐digestion of Scenedesmus dimorphus or mixed WRRF‐grown algae with WRRF biosolids. The results indicate that normalized methane yield decreases with increasing algae content in a manner than can be reasonably well fit using linear regression (R 2 = 67%). It is thus possible to predict methane yield for any mixture of algae and biosolids based on the methane yield of the biosolids alone. Using revised methane yields, the energy return on investment of a typical WRRF increases from 0.53 (without algae) to 0.66 (with algae). Thus, algae‐based wastewater treatment may hold promise for improving WRRF energy efficiency without compromising effluent quality.