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Electronic Journal of Biotechnology
Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
ISSN: 0717-3458
Vol. 11, No. 1, 2008
Bioline Code: ej08009
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge

Electronic Journal of Biotechnology, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2008

 en Performance of biofilm carriers in anaerobic digestion of sisal leaf waste leachate
Mshandete, Anthony Manoni; Björnsson, Lovisa; Kivaisi, Amelia Kajumulo; Rubindamayugi, Mugassa Steven Thomas & Mattiasson, Bo

Abstract

Three methanogenic biofilm bioreactors were studied to evaluate the performance of three types of carriers. The carrier material were consisted of sisal fibre waste, pumice stone and porous glass beads, and the bioprocess evaluated was the methanogenesis anaerobic digestion of sisal leaf waste leachate. Process performance was investigated by increasing the organic loading rate (OLR) step-wise. The best results were obtained from the bioreactor packed with sisal fibre waste. It had the highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies in the range of 80-93% at OLRs in the range of 2.4-25 g COD L-1d-1. The degradation pattern of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) showed that the degradation of propionate was limiting at higher OLRs. The stable pH and higher partial alkalinity (PA) of the outflow illustrated that packed-bed bioreactors have a good ability to withstand the variations in load and volatile fatty acid concentrations that can occur in a two-stage anaerobic process. In conclusion, sisal fibre waste was shown to be a novel promising biofilm carrier and would work very well in methanogenic biofilm bioreactors treating sisal leaf tissue waste leachate. Furthermore both sisal wastes are available in the neighbourhood of sisal industries, which makes anaerobic digestion scale up at sisal factory level feasible and cost-effective.

Keywords
biogas, methanogenesis, packed-bed bioreactors, packing media.

 
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