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Environmental Technology
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To cite this article: D. Hidalgo , E. Sastre , M. Gmez & P. Nieto (2012): Evaluation of pre-treatment processes for increasing
biodegradability of agro-food wastes, Environmental Technology, 33:13, 1497-1503
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09593330.2012.665488
Environmental Technology
Vol. 33, No. 13, July 2012, 14971503
Introduction
The production of organic waste can be considered an
integral part of developed society. These wastes (solid or
semi-solid) are generated from agriculture, food processing, drinks manufacture or even in the form of domestic
wastes, and their quantities are appreciable. Over the years,
an array of ideas for the utilization of these wastes has been
put forward. However, anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic
wastes to produce energy in the form of biogas is the most
likely option to be of commercial interest, provided that
the economics are favourable [1,2]. The degradation rate of
complex particulate organic matter in anaerobic digesters is
generally controlled by the rate of the rst, and usually limiting, step: the hydrolysis, where the cell wall is broken, thus
allowing the organic matter inside the cell to be available
for biological degradation. In order to increase the waste
degradation rate and methane production, the pre-treatment
options, such as physical, chemical or even thermal ones,
have yielded promising results [3,4].
Pre-treatment breaks down the complex organic structure into simpler molecules that are more susceptible to
microbial degradation. Alkaline pre-treatment destroys cell
walls by hydroxyl anions and causes natural shape loss
Corresponding
1498
D. Hidalgo et al.
Waste
M1 (%)
M2 (%)
M3 (%)
M4 (%)
WAS
PCS
SJ
PM
25
25
25
25
15
15
55
15
15
55
15
15
35
15
15
35
Environmental Technology
Table 2.
1499
Pre-treatment conditions.
Experiment 1
Pre-treatment
Shredding
Sonication
Alkaline hydrolysis
Acid hydrolysis
Operating conditions
Power (kW)
Frequency (kHz)
Time (min)
850
200
37
0.5
0.5
1.5
60
pH
Solution
Time (min)
12
2
5 g l1 NaOH
30 ml l1 H2 SO4
60
60
Sample
Raw waste
Raw waste
Sample
Raw waste
Raw waste
Experiment 2
Operating conditions
Sonication
Power(kW)
Frequency (kHz)
Time (min)
Assay 2A
Assay 2B
Assay 2C
Assay 2D
200
200
1500
2500
37
37
40
40
0.5
0.5
35
35
60
30
60
60
Sample
Waste mixture
Waste mixture
Waste mixture
Waste mixture
Es =
(1)
where the parameters n, a, b, c refer to the stoichiometry
index of C, H, O and N, respectively.
Biodegradability factor
Pt
kJ
|=|
V TS
g TS
(3)
(2)
Pre-treatment conditions
Two experiments were carried out. The rst was designed
to determine the pre-treatment method giving the highest biodegradability enhancement when the raw wastes
were individually analysed. Four methods (mechanical,
acid hydrolysis, alkaline hydrolysis and sonication) were
tested. For mechanical treatment a domestic shredder was
used. The ultrasonic irradiation of wastes was performed in
two systems (Elmasonic S 40H and Tierra Tech SET 1500)
that emit 37 and 40 kHz, respectively. For each sonication
test, a 100 ml sample was lled in a beaker and then placed
in the equipment water bath. The specic input energy (Es)
(Equation (3)) was dened as a function of ultrasonic power
1500
D. Hidalgo et al.
Table 3.
Wastes characterization.
Elemental compositiona
Physico-chemical parameters
Waste pH- TS g l1 VS g l1 VS/TS-
%C
%H %N %P %S %Ash %Ob
WH
FC
PCS
SJ
WAS
PM
46.5
47.0
60.4
44.9
46.4
34.5
5.0
7.1
8.9
5.9
6.4
4.7
a%
5.0
5.2
5.1
3.9
6.5
7.7
49.1
364.5
445.2
194.4
25.6
44.9
43.6
256.4
427.8
179.3
23.1
30.7
0.9
0.7
1.0
0.9
0.9
0.7
3.3
2.0
6.9
1.6
6.9
2.8
1.1
0.8
4.0
0.7
0.5
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.4
0.2
0.4
0.7
11.2
29.7
3.9
7.8
9.8
31.6
32.5
13.1
15.5
38.9
29.6
25.3
b %O estimated.
c Calculated assuming
Pre-treatment
WH
FC
PCS
SJ
WAS
PM
Shredding
Sonication
Alkaline hydrolysis
Acid hydrolysis
1.11
1.31
0.67
0.60
1.05
1.10
0.59
0.50
1.00
1.27
0.37
0.38
1.02
1.24
1.01
0.40
1.10
1.47
0.94
1.79
1.00
2.54
0.05
0.00
Environmental Technology
1501
Figure 1. Cumulative specic methane production curves of the waste mixtures (M1, M2, M3 and M4) at dierent conditions (2A, 2B,
2C, 2D and non-pre-treatment). All data are seed-blank corrected.
1502
D. Hidalgo et al.
frequency and nature of the treated material, as the experimental results show.
The optimal scenario assayed corresponds to 2A, closely
followed by scenarios 2B and 2D and, nally, 2C. The
assays without pre-treatment gave the worst results. The
ultimate methane production was proportional to the specic energy input applied, Es, in all the mixtures, but higher
specic methane potentials were found at lower frequency
(37 kHz, assays 2A and 2B) in accordance with Bourgrier
et al. [26]. The disintegration of samples was also most
eective at the lower frequency, as can be deduced from
the largest increase in turbidity, derived from the parallel increase in COD solubilization. The soluble COD ratio
(dened as soluble COD divided by total COD) increased
in all the cases from 15% to 38% for 37 kHz frequency and
only from 9% to 25% for 40 kHz. This can be explained
because low-frequency ultrasound creates large cavitation
bubbles that, upon collapse, initiate powerful jet streams
exerting strong shear forces in the liquid. The decreasing
disintegration eciency observed at higher frequencies is
attributed to smaller cavitation bubbles, which do not allow
the initiation of such strong shear forces. On the other hand,
methane generation increased with increasing sonication
time in M2 and M4. Here, short sonication times result in
particle deagglomeration without the destruction of bacteria cells, while longer sonication brought about the break-up
of cell walls. The waste particles are disintegrated and dissolved compounds release. However, in the case of M1 and
M3 (the mixtures with the highest composition of PCS),
the eect of the sonication times assayed on the cumulative
specic methane production is not appreciable, since the
gures for assays 2A and 2B are similar. It is possible that
a higher sonication time would have given better results
for this specic waste, which seems more resistant to disintegration. When maintaining the parameters frequency,
total volume (V ) and sonication time (t) constant during the
sonication pre-treatment, an increment in the same test on
the power input, P, positively aects the nal AD process
behaviour, resulting in an increment in the total methane
production, as shown when comparing assays 2C and 2D.
In absolute terms, M1 is the mixture most aected by
ultrasound pre-treatments, since it shows that the higher
cumulative methane production increases when this method
is applied in comparison with the non-pre-treated assays
(104%, 103%, 75% and 102% of increment for assays 2A,
2B, 2C and 2D, respectively).
Biogas composition
During the early stages of the assays, methane content in the
biogas was low, but it increased until reaching the amounts
shown in Table 5. Higher methane content was observed
in the biogas of the pre-treated samples as compared to
the control, due to the better biodegradation of disintegrated samples. Again the optimal scenario corresponds to
assay 2A.
Table 5.
Biogas composition.
Methane percentage
M1
Non-pretreatment
Assay 2A
Assay 2B
Assay 2C
Assay 2D
M2
M3
M4
67.5 1.5
66.6 2.1
68.0 1.5
66.8 1.7
70.6 1.5
70.4 0.9
69.7 2.4
70.4 1.0
67.8 1.3
66.4 1.6
66.4 1.9
66.4 1.9
Conclusion
In this study, several pre-treatment methods (shredding,
sonication, acid hydrolysis and alkaline hydrolysis) applied
to dierent wastes and their mixtures were performed to
improve the AD eciency.
The results indicate that the digestion eciencies of
the wastes were consequently improved by ultrasonic pretreatment. Ultrasonic pre-treatment enhances the subsequent AD, resulting in increased production of biogas. It
has been shown that degradation of samples is more ecient
when using low frequencies and a correlation was found to
exist between gas production and energy applied. Results
also showed that the co-digestion of the mixtures does not
have a clear eect on AD eciency, although suggestions
of a synergistic eect have been observed, depending on the
waste mixture formulation.
The development and establishment of the pre-treatment
of wastes prior to AD in order to accelerate the hydrolysis step can make this technology potentially more feasible for all kinds of wastes. Pre-treatment can, thus,
enhance waste digestion and the rate and quantity of biogas
generated.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge support of this work by the
Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project CTM200914330).
Environmental Technology
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