Development of devices for anaerobic digestion tests

Abstract

Anaerobic Digestion (AD) allows treating organic waste and transforming it into value-added products: biogas and digested. In the present work, devices were made and tested for AD assays in discontinuous mode of 530 ml (Device type 1) and semicontinuous of 5.62 L (Device type 2). Device type 1 was validated through tests with apple pomace, carried out in triplicate, with a biogas production of 142 ± 6.6 ml and CH4 of 102.7 ± 9.8 ml and it was confirmed that the addition of eggshell improves by 43.06% the generation of CH4. Another study carried out with apple pomace and macroalgae in different proportions, showed the highest CH4 values for DA with 100% pomace (224.33 ± 21.59 ml), followed by 50-50% pomace-macroalgae (92.5 ± 14.73 ml) and finally, 100% macroalgae (6.17 ± 2.93 ml). In type 2 Devices, inoculum generation tests were carried out from anaerobic river sludge and, studies with apple pomace and pig slurry, suggesting design improvements.