• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2017

Relatively low efficiency in anaerobic digestion process is mainly caused by unproper mixing method. In this study, tray motion type agitator was applied in actual anaerobic digestion tank in order to improve the digestion efficiency, equalize the flow velocity distribution and energy saving. The impeller of tray motion type agitator was reciprocated vertically. Gas lift type agitator and tray motion type agitator appears almost same mixing efficiency include digestion rates. However, tray motion type agitator have shown that lower energy consumption compared to the conventional gas lift type agitator. Implementation of tray motion type agitator in the anaerobic digestion tanks contributed to the stabilization of mixing environment, efficiency and energy efficiency of the tank.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1093-1100
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• 2021

The present study investigated the effect of ammonia load on microbial communities in mesophilic anaerobic digestion of propionic acid. A laboratory-scale continuous anaerobic digester treating propionic acid as a sole organic substrate was operated under non-inhibitory condition and inhibitory conditions with ammonia (1.5 g and 3.5 g ammonia-N/L, respectively), and bacterial and archaeal communities in the steady states of each ammonia condition were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing. Thirteen bacterial families were detected as abundant bacterial groups in mesophilic anaerobic digestion of propionic acid. Increase in ammonia concentration resulted in significant shifts in microbial community structures. Syntorophobacter, Pelotomaculum, and Thermovigra were determined as the dominant groups of (potential) propionate oxidizing bacteria in the non-inhibitory condition, whereas Cryptanaerobacter and Aminobacterium were the dominant groups of (potential) propionate oxidizing bacteria in the ammonia-inhibitory condition. Methanoculleus and Methanosaeta were the dominant methanogens. Acetate-oxidation coupled with hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis might be enhanced with increases in the relative abundances of Methanoculleus and Tepidanaerobacter acetatoxydans under the ammonia-inhibitory condition. The results of the present study could be a valuable reference for microbial management of anaerobic digestion systems that are exposed to ammonia inhibition and propionic acid accumulation.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.203-209
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• 2019

Organic wastewater generated from polyester manufacturing processes was selected from H company to investigate the feasibility of anaerobic digestion that produces gases including methane. Bio Methane Potential (BMP) tests were conducted to measure the gas production and methane concentration for 7 process wastewater and 2 kinds of sludges from the H company. Also, along with monitoring pH and alkalinity during the anaerobic digestion process, the concentrations of COD and 1,4-dioxane were measured with 4 different operating conditions for N Emulsion (NE) and Ethylene Glycol (EG) wastewater. The BMP tests showed that 65% of methane was produced from NE and EG wastewater. This suggests that the organic wastewater from H company can be effectively treated by an anaerobic digester by which more than 90% of COD was removed.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.897-905
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• 2006

This study has been conducted to investigate biodegradation characteristics and optimum mixing ratio for co-digestion with thermophilic acid-fermented food waste and sewage sludge using batch anaerobic digester. As the basis operating conditions for anaerobic digestion, the reaction temperature was controlled $35{\pm}1^{\circ}C$ and stirrer was set 70rpm. Thermophilic acid-fermented food waste and sewage sludge were mixed at the ratio of 10:0, 7:3, 5:5, 3:7, 0:10 and 5;5(food waste : sewage sludge) as the influent substrates. In results of co-digestion according to mixing ratio of thermophilic fermented food wastes and sewage sludge in batch mesophilic anaerobic digestion reactor, $385mL\;CH_4/g\;VS_{added}$ of methane production rate at 1:1 mixing ratio was more than that of any other mixing ratios. Compared with $293mL\;CH_4/g\;VS_{added}$ of methane production rate at 1:1 mixing ratio of food wastes and sewage sludge, pretreatment of food wastes by thermophilic acid fermentation was more effective in co-digestion with sewage sludge.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.75-80
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• 2000

Kinetic data for the acid phase anaerobic digestion were presented in this study and the constants were determined with acid production rate and gas production rate. Process models based on continuous culture theory were used to describe the characteristics of the acid forming microorganisms and to enable further development toward utilization of the process in a more rational manner. Acid phase digestion can be separated with appropriate manipulation of hydraulic retention time in anaerobic digestion. Kinetic analysis of data from the various hydraulic retention times using a phase specific model obtained form the acid phase indicated maximum specific growth rate of 0.40/h, saturation constant of 2,000mgCOD.$\ell$, yield coefficient of 0.35 mgVSS/msCOD utilized and decay constant of 0.04/h for the acid production rate. Similar analysis of data for the gas production rate indicated maximum specific growth rate of 0.003/h, saturation constant of 2,200mgCOD/$\ell$, yield coefficient of 0.035 mgVSS/mgCOD utilized and decay constant of 0.06/h.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.490-495
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• 2005

Since there are very limited numbers of thermophilic anaerobic digesters being operated, it is often difficult to start up a new one using sludge from an existing reactor as a seed. However, for obvious reasons it seems few attempts have been made to compare the start-up performance of thermophilic anaerobic digestion using different sources of seed sludges. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the start-up performance of anaerobic digestion using aerobic Waste Activated Sludge (WAS) from a plant and mesophilic Anaerobic Digested Sludge (ADS) as the seed source at both mesophilic ($35^{\circ}C$) and thermophilic ($55^{\circ}C$) temperatures. In this study, two experiments were conducted. First, thermophilic anaerobic reactors were seeded with WAS (VSS = 4,400 mg/L) and ADS (VSS = 14,500 mg/L) to investigate start-up performance with a feed of acetate as well as propionate. The results show that WAS started to produce $CH_4$ soon after acetate feeding without a lag time, while ADS had a lag time of 10 days. When the feed was changed to propionate, WAS removed propionate down to below the detection limit of 10 mg/L, while ADS removed little propionate and produced little $CH_4$. Second, in order to further compare the methanogenic activity of WAS and ADS, both mesophilic and thermophilic reactors were operated. WAS acclimated to anaerobic conditions shortly and after acclimating it produced more $CH_4$ than ADS. WAS at mesophilic temperature biodegraded acetate at the same rate as for thermophilic. However WAS at mesophilic temperature biodegraded propionate at a much faster rate than at thermophilic. WAS as the seed source of anaerobic digestion resulted in much better performance than ADS at both mesophilic and thermophilic temperatures for both acetate and propionate metabolism.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.514-517
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• 2009

Anaerobic biodegradability(AB), which can be determined with the ultimate methane yield by the decomposition of organic materials, is one of the important parameters for the design and the operation of anaerobic digestion plant. In this study, Biochemical Methane Potential(BMP) test has been carried out to evaluate the methane yield of agro-industrial biomasses such as cattle manure, Italian ryegrass(IRG), Oats, Rye and Barley as the forage crops, Rush, the sludges produced from milling and slaughterhouse wastewater treatment plant(SMWTP, SSWTP). In the condition of thermophilic anaerobic digestion, the ultimate methane yield and anaerobic biodegradability of forage crops ranged from 0.367 to $0.452LCH_4$/gVS of methane yield with AB having the range of about 77.0 to 87.3%. On the other hand, that of other substrate showed low figures compared with the forage crops because of low VS content and C/N ratio. Therefore, the forage crops could be used as a good substrate to produce much more the methane in anaerobic digestion.

• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.21-25
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• 2019

This work experimentally determined the effect of microaerobic condition on anaerobic digestion of thickened waste activated sludge in semi-continuous mesophilic digesters at hydraulic retention time of 20 days. The concentration of hydrogen sulfide was $7{\pm}2ppm$ at the microaerobic condition and $14{\pm}2ppm$ at the anaerobic condition. Removal efficiency of volatile solid was not significantly different between microaerobic ($40{\pm}8%$) and anaerobic ($38{\pm}8%$) conditions. There was no important difference between microaerobic ($1,352{\pm}98ml/d$) and anaerobic ($1,362{\pm}104ml/d$) conditions in the biogas production, either. Therefore, it could be concluded that the application of the microaerobic condition was an efficient method of the hydrogen sulfide removal from the biogas.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.825-831
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• 2012

The retrofitting of a thickening unit process is widely considered in municipal wastewater treatment plants in Korea to enhance the anaerobic digestion efficiency. The authors examined the effect of feed concentration (2-34.1 g VS/L) and feed to microorganism (F/M) ratio (0.50-1.35 g VS/g VS) on anaerobic batch digestion of sewage sludge. Methane yield over 90 mL $CH_4/g$ $VS_{feed}$ was found at a feed concentration in the range of 12-26 g VS/L and a F/M ratio below 0.6 g VS/g VS. A high F/M ratio decreased methane yield and rate with oragnic acid accumulation. As sudden increase of sewage sludge concentration prior to anaerobic digestion would jeopardize the digester performance due to the rasied F/M ratio, gradual increase of the sludge feed concentration or an additional biomass retention in the digester is recommended.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.611-616
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• 2011

The impacts of ultrasonic pretreatment on the biodegradability of domestic sewage sludge were evaluated through a series of anaerobic digestion experiments in batch system. The gas and methane production from the sludge samples pretreated by an ultrasonic tool with different durations were measured with time. Although the biogas production increased with the extent of sludge solubilization and the period of ultrasonic pretreatment, the enhancement of sludge biodegradability was much more sensitive to the pretreatment for the relatively short periods. Most of the enhanced biodegradability by the pretreatment was appeared in the early stage of anaerobic digestion, less than 6 days. The maximum biogas production per day was observed between 4 to 6 days when the sludge was pretreated less than 10 minutes while it was obtained in the beginning for the sludge pretreated longer periods. The results suggest that the repeated alternation of low strength ultrasonic pretreatment and anaerobic digestion may be more effective than the combination of one time pretreatment for a relatively long period and following anaerobic digestion.