Abstract

ARENAS, Ligia Patricia; ESCALANTE, Humberto  and  COMBARIZA, Marianny Yajaira. Comparative study for methanogenic stage of anaerobic digestion to organic fraction of fruit and vegetable municipal wastes treatment. Rev. ion [online]. 2012, vol.25, n.1, pp.89-96. ISSN 0120-100X.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the methanogenic stage of anaerobic digestion to fruit and vegetable municipal wastes (FVMW), by mean of specific design reactors. The evaluation was carried out testing two systems with different configurations. System I was designed by two suspended-bed reactors, one for hydrolytic stage (R1) and other for methanogenic stage (R3). System II was formed by a suspended-bed reactor (R2) for hydrolytic stage and fixed-bed reactor (R4) for methanogenic stage. System I showed instability pH and low methane average production (0.23 ±0.03 LCH₄/L/day) in reactor R3, whereas system II showed stable pH, better consumption of volatile fatty acids (VFA) and methane average production of 0.58 ±0.05 LCH4/L/day in reactor R4. Bacterial attachment to the ceramic support surface in the fixed-bed reactor leads to formation a biofilm in system II, and that increases the methane production. For these reasons the system II is the most advisable configuration for the anaerobic digestion to FVMW.

Keywords : fruit and vegetable wastes; anaerobic digestion; bioreactors performance; methanogenic stage; Hydrolytic stage.

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