Performance Evaluation of Mesophilic Anaerobic Digestion of Chicken Manure with Algal Digestate

• Published in: Energies (Basel) Vol. 11; no. 7; p. 1829
• Main Authors: Duan, Na, Ran, Xia, Li, Ruirui, Kougias, Panagiotis, Zhang, Yuanhui, Lin, Cong, Liu, Hongbin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.07.2018
• Subjects: Algae; algal digestate; Alternative energy sources; Ammonia; Anaerobic digestion; Animal wastes; Biogas; Carbon; chicken manure; Chickens; Civil engineering; Dilution; Drinking water; Energy conservation; Environmental impact; Enzymes; Feasibility studies; Fresh water; Freshwater environments; Inoculum; Investigations; Kinetics; Livestock; Manures; Mass flow; Methane; Nitrogen; Nonpoint source pollution; Performance evaluation; Poultry; Poultry manure; Pretreatment; Raw materials; Substrates; Trace elements; Water consumption
• ISSN: 1996-1073; 1996-1073
• DOI: 10.3390/en11071829

Dilution is considered to be a fast and easily applicable pretreatment for anaerobic digestion (AD) of chicken manure (CM), however, dilution with fresh water is uneconomical because of the water consumption. The present investigation was targeted at evaluating the feasibility and process performance of AD of CM diluted with algal digestate water (AW) for methane production to replace tap water (TW). Moreover, the kinetics parameters and mass flow of the AD process were also comparatively analyzed. The highest methane production of diluted CM (104.39 mL/g volatile solid (VS)) was achieved with AW under a substrate concentration of 8% total solid (TS). The result was markedly higher in comparison with the group with TW (79.54–93.82 mL/gVS). Apart from the methane production, considering its energy and resource saving, nearly 20% of TW replaced by AW, it was promising substitution to use AW for TW to dilute CM. However, the process was susceptible to substrate concentration, inoculum, as well as total ammonia and free ammonia concentration.