• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.15-20
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• 2012

Processing of organic waste is converted to anaerobic digestion for environmental friendly and sustainable energy recovery and reduction of sludge. In this study, ECOPAD (ECOdays' Plug-flow Anaerobic Digster)design for a high solids content and high organic matter content were used to investigate an applicability and efficiency of food waste treatment and poultry wastewater treatment. Case-by-case analysis of treatment efficiency of ECOPAD using food waste of city "P" and city "S". Volatile Solids basis organic removal efficiency of city "P" and city "S" was 84% and 88% respectively. And, the content of methane (P City: 70%, S City: 71%) was measured similarly. In the case of poultry waste bio-gas production was measured to $1.6Nm^3/kg$-VSrem, and methane content was measured to 69%.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.270-279
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• 2014

Microbial community shifts, associated with performance data, were investigated in an anaerobic batch digester treating high-solid food waste under mesophilic conditions using, a combination of molecular techniques and chemical analysis methods. The batch process was successfully operated with an organic removal efficiency of 44.5% associated with a biogas yield of 0.82 L/g $VS_{removal}$. Microbial community structures were examined by denaturing gel gradient electrophoresis. Clostridium and Symbiobacterium organisms were suggested to be mainly responsible for the organic matter catabolism in hydrolysis and acidogenesis reactions. The dynamics of archaeal and methanogenic populations were monitored using real-time PCR targeting 16S rRNA genes. Methanosarcina was the predominant methanogen, suggesting that the methanogenesis took place mainly via an aceticlastic pathway. Hydrogenotrophic methanogens were also supported in high-solid anaerobic digestion of food waste through syntrophism with syntrophic bacterium. Microbial community shifts showed good agreement with the performance parameters in anaerobic digestion, implying the possibility of diagnosing a high-solid anaerobic digestion process by monitoring microbial community shifts. On the other hand, the batch results could be relevant to the start-up period of a continuous system and could also provide useful information to set up a continuous operation.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.8
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• pp.578-582
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• 2011

Aerobic digestion of organic sludge generates stabilized slurry which could be used as a nitrogen-rich liquid fertilizer. In this study, the effects of air supply rate and eggshell addition on the sludge fertilizer efficiency were examined. Sludge from a wastewater treatment plant in a food industry was fed to a lab-scale aerobic digester, and the fertilizer efficiency was assessed by the growth of cucumber. Increase of air supply rate up to 200 mL/L/min enhanced the fertilizer efficiency as well as the nitrification efficiency. The addition of eggshell, a potassium-rich leftover, in fertilizer application was also beneficial to the cucumber growth. A proper control of air supply rate and the use of an inexpensive additive would guarantee the quality of sludge liquid fertilizer.

• Journal of the Korea Organic Resources Recycling Association
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.60-66
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• 2003

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effective pretreatment of foodwaste for the anaerobic digestion. Considering the foodwaste generation and the anaerobic digester for municipal wastewater sludges, the some pretreatment processes were performed such as the grinding of foodwastes with the addition of water, the mixing with sludges, and the hydrolysis with the addition of NaOH. The results were as followings ; 1. As the stage of feasibility test in laboratory scale, the foodwaste grinding using a household garbage disposer was performed with three different water mixing ratios of 1:1, 1:5 and 1:9 as weight base. The physicochemical characteristics of grinded foodwaste were analyzed and the effective conditions was recommended as the 1 :5mixing ratio of foodwaste and water and the below 8mm particle size. 2. And the mixing of foodwaste and municipal wastewater sludge was studied with three different mixing ratios of 1:9, 3:7 and 5:5 as weight base. The physicochemical characteristics of the mixed foodwaste and sludges were analyzed and the effective mixing ratio was recommended as 3:7 of foodwaste and sludge.

• Microbiology and Biotechnology Letters
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.219-223
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• 1981

Experiments on methane gas digestion were conducted to prevent livestock pollution and develop substitute energy. When about 30(w/w)% of sludge was added to cow feces, pig feces, and poultry feces and digested at 37$^{\circ}C$ for 20 days, methane gas produced per Kg of organic matter for cow feces, pig feces, poultry feces was 131, 248 and 235 l, respectively. pH decreased slightly at first but increased gradually afterwards during digestion period. When 20, 30, and 40(w/w)% of sludge were added to the mixture of cow feces (300g) and water (200g), the volumes of gas produced were 6.1, 14.5 and 13.4 l, respectively. Volume of methane gas produced from the mixture of cow feces and saw dust was much more than that from the mixture of cow feces and rice polishings. The contents of N, K, P for digestion residues were sufficient to be utilized as a fertilizer. When methane gas digestion was carried out with cow feces in a submersible pump digester the volume of methane gas produced per Kg of organic matter was 188 l. The price of total methane gas produced at this digestion was similar to that of the electric power consumed.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.1-11
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• 1987

Comprehensive laboratory experiments including digestion failures were conducted to identify differences between mesophilic and thermophilic digestion. Critical HRT was found to be near 10days for mesophilic and near 5days for thermophilic digestion. Inhibition occurred rapidly when operated below critical HRT. However, inhibition at mesophilic condition was much greater than that at thermophilic condition. Although digester performances were similar above critical HRT of mesophilic digestion, thermophilic digestion was considerably advantageous below this HRT. Thermophilic digestion produced smaller amount of sludges which had significantly higher settling velocity and lower specific resistance. Reaction rates also clearly demonstrated temperature and HRT effects on digestion. It was also found that gas production rates increased linearly with increasing reaction rates regardless of temperature and their relationships were almost identical at mesophilic and thermophilic temperature.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.737-743
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• 1999

A conventional thermophilic anaerobic digester was converted into a thermophilic high-rate hybrid anaerobic reactor (THAR) for treating distillery wastewater. The THAR has been operating successfully since May 1995 at a loading rate of 5.45 to $11.52{\;}kg/\textrm{m}^3/d$ (maximum of 15.02). The THAR has demonstrated a soluble Chemical Oxygen Demand (sCOD) removal efficiency of 85 to 91% and a total COD (tCOD) removal efficiency of as much as 72 to 84%. Product gas had a methane content of 59 to 68%. The tCOD removal rates were 4.31 to 5.43, 6.26 to 6.89, and 9.03 to $9.78kg{\;}tCOD/\textrm{m}^3/d$ for tapioca, com, and naked-barley wastewater, respectively. The sCOD removal rates ranged from 3.75 to 4.79,3.28 to 4.89, and 5.57 to 6.21kg $sCOD/\textrm{m}^3/d$ for tapioca, com, and naked-barley wastewater, respectively. There were unknown substances in a naked-barley distillery wastewater that were identified as being toxic for microorganisms. However, the THAR treated naked-barley wastewater continuously for 26 days, operating at an average tCOD loading of $11.08{\;}kg/\textrm{m}^3/d$without any signs of deterioration in either COD removal efficiency or gas production rate. During this period, the average removal efficiencies of tCOD and sCOD were 84% and 91%, respectively, and the gas production rate averaged 6.61 to $7.57{\;}\textrm{m}^3/\textrm{m}^3$ reactor/d which produced 0.57 to $0.69{\;}\textrm{m}^3{\;}biogas/kg{\;}tCOD_{rem}$. From tapioca and com wastewater, the reactor showed an average gas production rate of 3.18 to 3.46 and 4.91 to $5.22{\;}\textrm{m}^3/\textrm{m}^3$ reactor/d which produced 0.53 to 0.69 and 0.62 to $0.71{\;}\textrm{m}^3/kg{\;}tCOD_{rem}$, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.102-108
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• 2008

At the University of Maine, a hemicellulose pre-extraction technology is now being investigated to improve pulp yields, reduce the organic and inorganic load for liquor recovery, and create a feed stream for the generation of new biomaterials. It is important to understand the composition of unextracted wood, extracted wood, and pulping extracts in the design of an economically viable pilot-scale ethanol plant. For analysis of wood pulp composition, the total analytical mass balance closure was 100.6, 100.3, and 81.6% for unextracted chips, extracted chips, and pulping extracts from HPLC-H column analysis. Meanwhile, the total analytical mass balance from the HPLC-P column was 97.8, 86.3, and 80.7%, respectively. This slight variability between H- and P-column results for analytical mass balance may be within the experimental error of the measurement. The data generated by this analysis are important to further design work in commercializing this process.

• Solar Energy
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.197-203
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• 1998

A 5 ton/day pilot scale two-phase anaerobic digester was constructed and tasted to treat Korean food wastes in Anyang city. The process was developed based on 3 years of lab-scale experimental results on am optimim treatment method for the recovery of biogas and humus. Problems related to food waste are ever Increasing quantity among municipal solid wastes(MSW) and high moisture and salt contents. Thus our food waste produces large amounts of leachate and bed odor in landfill sites which are being exhausted. The easily degradable presorted food waste was efficiently treated in the two-phase anaerobic digestion process. The waste contained in plastic bags was shredded and then screened for the removal of inert material such as fabrics and plastics, and subsequently put into the two-stage reactors. Heavy and light inerts such as bones, shells, spoons and plastic pieces were again removed by gravity differences. The residual organic component was effectively hydrolyzed and acidified in the first reactor with 5 days space time at pH of about 6.5. The second, methanization reactor part of which is filled with anaerobic fillters, converted the acids into methane with pH between 7.4 to 7.8. The space time for the second reactor was 15 days. The effluent from the second reactor was recycled to the first reactor to provide alkalinities. The process showed stable steady state operation with the maximum organic rate of 7.9 $kgVS/m^3day$ and the volatile solid reduction efficiency of about 70%. The total of 3.6 tons presorted MSW containing 2.9 tons of food organic was treated to produce about $230m^3$ of biogas with 70% of methane and 80kg humus. This process is extended to full scale treating 15 tons of food waste a day in Euiwang city and the produced biogas is utilized for the heating/cooling of adjacent buildings.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.382-389
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• 2013

Propionate is an important intermediate product during the methane fermentation of organic matter, and its degradation is crucial for maintaining the performance of an anaerobic digester. In order to understand the effect of temperature on propionate degradation, an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor with synthetic wastewater containing propionate as a sole carbon source was introduced. Under the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 10 h and influent propionate of 2,000 mg/l condition, propionate removal was above 94% at 30-$35^{\circ}C$, whereas propionate conversion was inhibited when temperature was suddenly decreased stepwise from $30^{\circ}C$ to $25^{\circ}C$, to $20^{\circ}C$, and then to $18^{\circ}C$. After a long-term operation, the propionate removal at $25^{\circ}C$ resumed to the value at 30- $35^{\circ}C$, whereas that at $20^{\circ}C$ and $18^{\circ}C$ was still lower than the value at $35^{\circ}C$ by 8.1% and 20.7%, respectively. Microbial community composition analysis showed that Syntrophobacter and Pelotomaculum were the major propionate-oxidizing bacteria (POB), and most POB had not changed with temperature decrease in the UASB. However, two POB were enriched at $18^{\circ}C$, indicating they were low temperature tolerant. Methanosaeta and Methanospirillum were the dominant methanogens in this UASB and remained constant during temperature decrease. Although the POB and methanogenic composition hardly changed with temperature decrease, the specific $COD_{Pro}$ removal rate of anaerobic sludge (SCRR) was reduced by 21.4%-46.4% compared with the control ($35^{\circ}C$) in this system.