• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.413-424
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• 2014

The potential of using the biogas as energy source has long been widely recognised and current techniques are being developed to upgrade the technical quality and to enhance energy efficiency. The objective of this paper is to present efficient and effective pre-treatment methods of increasing the amount of produced biogas in anaerobic digestion of activated sludge treatment process. The paper also presents a review of the effect on biogas production between pre-treated and raw sludge, and also put forward the advantages and disadvantages of each pre-treatment method.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.315-322
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate the biodegradability and performance of organic removal and methane production rate when treating piggery wastewater using a granule of two-phase anaerobic process applied UASB. BMP test was conducted as simple means to monitor relative biodegradability of substrate and to determine methane production of an organic material. The two-phase anaerobic process is consisted of a continuous flow stirred-tank reactor (CFSTR) for the acidification phase and an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket reactor (UASB) for the methanogenesis. The acidogenic reactor played key roles in reducing the periodically applied shock-loading and in the acidification of the influent organics. A stable maximum biogas production rate was 400mL. The methane contents ranged from 73 to 80% during the experimental period. It is known that most of the removed organic matter was converted to methane gas, and the produced biogas might be high quality for its subsequent use.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.41-46
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• 2012

In this study, the performance of new digestion system (NDS) for the treatment of food waste leachate was evaluated. The food waste leachate was fed intermittently to an anaerobic reactor at increasing steps of 3.3 L/day (hydraulic retention time [HRT] = 30 day), 5 L/day (HRT = 20 day), and finally 10 L/day (HRT = 10 day). In the anaerobic reactor, the pH and alkalinity were maintained at 7.6 to 8.2 and 8,940-14,400 mg/L, respectively. Maximum methane yield determined to be 0.686L $CH_4$/g volatile solids (VS) containing HRT over 20 day. In the digester, 102,328 mg chemical oxygen demand (COD)/L was removed to produce 350 L/day (70% of the total) of biogas, but in the digested sludge reduction (DSR) unit, only 3,471 mg COD/L was removed with a biogas production of 158 L/day. Without adding any chemicals, 25% of total nitrogen (TN) and 31% of total phosphorus (TP) were removed after the DSR, while only 48% of TN and 32% of TP were removed in the nitrogen, phosphorus, and heavy metals (NPHM) removal unit. Total removal of TN was 73% and total removal of TP was 63%.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.44-52
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• 2024

This study presents a novel approach to hydrogen production by biogas from organic waste without CO₂ removal. A process model was developed to reduce the costs associated with biogas pretreatment and purification processes. Through optimization of heat exchange networks, the simulation aimed to minimize process costs, maximizing hydrogen production and flue gas temperature. The results reveal that the most efficient process model maximizes the flue gas temperature while following the constraint of the number of heat exchangers. These findings hold promise for contributing to the expansion of "Biogas-to-clean hydrogen" energy conversion technology.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.229-234
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• 2008

Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) has started the nation's first biogas-microturbine project in the city of Gongju as an effort to encourage the utilization of wasted biogas containing useful energy source in the form of $CH_4$. The goal of the project is to set up the biogas microturbine co-generation system for utilizing biogas as an energy source and improving the economics of the wastewater treatment plant. Wastewater treatment processes were investigated in depth to find improvement possibility. Changes in internal recirculation ratio and pre-treatment degree are needed to optimize plant operation and biogas production. Biogas pre-treatment system satisfies Capstone's fuel condition requirement with the test result of 99.9% and 90.2% of hydrogen sulphide and ammonia is removal performance. Installation of microturbine and manufacture of heat exchanger to warm anaerobic digester has been done successfully. Expected economic profit produced by the system is coming from energy saving including electricity 115,871kWh/year and heat contained in exhaust gas 579GJ/year.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.174.1-174.1
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• 2011

Biogas production and utilisation is an emerging alternative energy technology. Biogas is produced from the biological breakdown of organic matter through anaerobic digestion. Biogas can be utilized for various energy services such as heating, electricity generation and vehicle fuel. Especially, to be utilized as vehicle fuel, raw biogas needs to be upgraded, that is, mainly the removal of carbon dioxide to increase the methane content, up to more than 95% in some cases, similar to the composition of fossil-based natural gas. Biogas fuelled vehicles can reduce $CO_2$ emission by between 75% and 200% compared with fossil fuels. Biomethane development is largely driven by national initiative and predominately by concerns for national air pollution and waste management. Recently, biogas projects for vehicle fuels by some companies are ongoing and Korea government also announced investment to develop biogas as a transport fuel. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the feasibility of biomethane as a transport fuel in Korea. In this study, we investigated quality characteristics, quality standard and upgrading technology to use vehicle fuel of transport sector in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.197-205
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• 2010

This study was conducted to investigate the optimum conditions for efficient methane production through anaerobic digestion of pig waste slurry. The examined parameters were organic matter content of the pig slurry, the ratio of seed sludge to pig slurry, and stirring intensity of the digestion reactor. The effects of types of slurry produced from different purpose-based pigs fed with different feeds were also tested. The methane concentration in the produced biogas was 45% when the ratio of seed sludge to pig slurry was 50% and total solid (TS) concentration was 1%, and it increased in proportional to TS concentration increases from 3 to 7%. At 3 and 5% of TS concentration, increasing mixing velocity from 80 to 160 rpm resulted in higher biogas production amount. However, mixing amount of seed sludge did not cause any significant effect on biogas production. Overall, the most efficient biogas production was achieved at 3-5% TS concentration in combination with 50% seed sludge inoculation and mixing velocity at 120 rpm. Among pig slurry types, gestating sow waste slurry showed the highest biogas production probably due to higher the degradation rate than other types of pig waste slurry being affected by the feeds components.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.893-906
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• 2011

The effect of ultrasound pretreatment on sludge degragability was investigated at different condotions: ultrasonic frequency(28, 40, 50kHz), intensity(10, 25, 50W), sonication time(10, 20, 30, 60min). Total suspended solid(TSS) and soluble chemical oxygen demand(SCOD) concentration were measured for the evaluation of pretreatment efficiency. The pretreated sludge was used as the feedstock for anaerobic digestion process. Biogas production and volatile suspended solid(VSS) removal were determined for evaluating the process performance. 1. TSS concentration of the sludge decreased at a constant rate as sonication operation was applied. The degradation rate of TSS increased when ultrasound frequency was decreased from 50kHz to 28kHz and intensity was increased from 10W to 50W. Efficiency of TSS degradation per input energy increased as ultrasonic frequency and intensity were decreased. At the frequency of 28 and 40kHz, SCOD concentration rapidly increased during the initial 30min of sonication time, and then it gradually increased. At 50kHz, SCOD concentration constantly increased for 60min of the sonication time. The SCOD production rate increased with increasing intensity under all ultrasound frequencies. 2. The optimum condition of ultrasound treatment was 28kHz, 50W and 60min for maximizing the biogas production, methane fraction, VSS removal. The highest values in biogas production, methane fraction in biogas, VSS removal were 370ml, 70%, 2.45g, respectively. Methane production rate per input energy increased at ultrasonic frequency and intensity decreased. 3. When raw sludge was pretreated at the condition of ultrasonic frequency of 28 and 40kHz in series, sequential-frequency sonication, intensity of 50W and 60min, biogas production, methane fraction, VSS removal were about the same that of 28kHz single-frequency sonication. When sequential-frequency sonication of 28 and 50kHz was applied in series, biogas production, methane fraction, VSS removal were 356 ~ 423ml, 69 ~ 71%, 2.41 ~ 2.78g, respectively. The pretreatment efficiency of 28-50kHz sequential-frequency sonication which sonication time of 28kHz and 50kHz was 40min and 20min was higher than that of 28kHz single-frequency sonication.

• Advances in environmental research
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.87-103
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• 2021

Anaerobic digestion (AD) refers to the biological process which can convert organic substrates to biogas in the absence of oxygen. The aim of this study was to determine the capability of feedstock to produce biogas and to quantify the biogas yield from different feedstocks. A co-digestion approach was carried out in a continuous stirred tank reactor operated under mesophilic conditions and at a constant organic loading rate of 0.0756 g COD/ L.day, with a hydraulic retention time of 25 days. For comparison, mono-digestion was also included in the experimental work. 2 L working volumes were used throughout the experimental work. The seed culture was obtained from composting as substrate digestion. When the feedstock was added to seeding, the biogas started to emit after three days of retention time. The highest volume of biogas was observed when the seeding volume used for 1000mL. However, the lowest volume of biogas yield was obtained from both co-digestion reactors, with a value of 340 mL. For methane yield, the highest methane production rate was 0.16 L CH4/mg. The COD with yield was at 8.6% and the lowest was at 0.5%. The highest quantity of methane was obtained from a reactor of Euphorbiaceae peel with added seeding, while the lowest methane yield came from a reactor of Euphorbiaceae stems with added seeding. In this study, sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) was used as a buffering solution to correct the pH in the reactor if the reactor condition was found to be in a souring or acidic condition.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.524-534
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• 2017

The development and utilization of crop straw biogas resources can effectively alleviate the shortage of energy, environmental pollution, and other issues. This study performed a continuous batch test at $35^{\circ}C$ to assess the methane production potential and volatile organic acid contents using the modified Gompertz equation. Illumina MiSeq platform sequencing, which is a sequencing method based on sequencing-by-synthesis, was used to compare the archaeal community diversity, and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) was used to analyze the bacterial community diversity in rice straw, dry maize straw, silage maize straw, and tobacco straw. The results showed that cumulative gas production values for silage maize straw, rice straw, dry maize straw, and tobacco straw were 4,870, 4,032.5, 3,907.5, and $3,628.3ml/g{\cdot}VS$, respectively, after 24 days. Maximum daily gas production values of silage maize straw and rice straw were 1,025 and $904.17ml/g{\cdot}VS$, respectively, followed by tobacco straw and dry maize straw. The methane content of all four kinds of straws was > 60%, particularly that of silage maize straw, which peaked at 67.3%. Biogas production from the four kinds of straw was in the order silage maize straw > rice straw > dry maize straw > tobacco straw, and the values were 1,166.7, 1,048.4, 890, and $637.4ml/g{\cdot}VS$, respectively. The microbial community analysis showed that metabolism was mainly carried out by acetate-utilizing methanogens, and that Methanosarcina was the dominant archaeal genus in the four kinds of straw, and the DGGE bands belonged to the phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Chloroflexi. Silage maize is useful for biogas production because it contains four kinds of straw.