Avaliação da operação de biodigestor no processo de digestão anaeróbia de resíduos sólidos orgânicos

Abstract

The anaerobic digestion (AD) process has been used in the treatment of organic solid waste, for being an alternative to ease environmental problems and also an energy issue, since it allows the production of energy to help supplying the high demand, as a result of high population and industrial growth. However, issues concerning work scales, operation forms, organic loads and influence of parameters such as VFA, alkalinity and ammonia nitrogen (AN) to linger. In this way, the objective of this work was to evaluate the biodigester operation, during 340 days, by varying the frequencies of organic solid waste (OSW) and organic loading rate (OLR), of 7,98, 7,80, 9,64, 3,28, 4,10 e 5,00 kg STV/m3.d., with mean de TS: 339,6 mg/g and humidity: 64%, against production of biogas and CH4. In addition, it also sought to evaluate the influence of parameters such as VFA, alkalinity and AN on the DA process. The experimental system consisted of a single chamber biodigester with a volume of 0.28 m³, fed with OSW from a university restaurant and inoculum set to the digestion of OSW. The monitoring of the experimental process was carried out through physicochemical characterization (pH, COD, BOD, alkalinity, VFA, TS, TFS, TVS, TN, AN, PT and TOC) solid and liquid fractions, in addition to the quantification of biogas (volume and percentage of CH4). The digestion process revealed that OLRs applications of 3,28, 4,10 e 5,00 kg TVS/m3.d. allowed higher yields of biogas and CH4, in relation to OLRs of 7,98, 7,80 e 9,64 kg TVS/m3.d. The continuous application of OLR of 4,10 kg TVS/m3.d. showed the highest biogas yield and CH4 as a function of the VTS applied, being 94,63 NL/kg TVS and 45,42 NL/kg TVS, respectively. During the digestion process, high AGV/Alkalinity ratios, low C/N ratios and high concentrations of VFA and AN led to an digestion condition which represented reduced yields of biogas and methane.