• Clean Technology
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.51-58
• /
• 2010

Methane was produced from the anaerobic digestion of marine macro-algae. Elemental analysis was first performed to estimate the theoretical methane production of three macro-algae (Undaria pinnatifida, Laminaria japonica, Hizikia fusiformis). Three algae were found to contain C 34 ~ 36%, H 5%, O 37 ~ 43%, N 2 ~ 4%, S 0.4 ~ 0.7%, and ash 14~21%, and the theoretical methane content was in the range of 56 ~ 60%, which can produce 442 ~ 568 mL $CH_4$ per g of volatile solid (VS). Using the biological methane potential (BMP) test, we found that L. japonica resulted in the highest yield of methane (52%). Moreover, various operational conditions, such as algae amount, pH, salinity, particle size, and pre-treatment, were investigated in order to find an optimal condition of anaerobic digestion. At pH 8.0, the autoclaved L. japonica (5g VS/200 mL), when used without washing salt, produced 268.5 mL/g VS which is 65% of the theoretical methane productions. Furthermore, using a CSTR (with the working volume of 7 L out of the total volume of 10 L), we have successfully operated the reactor for 65 days and obtained maximum methane production rate of 1.4 L/day with purity of 70%.