Energy, Vol.85, 194-199, 2015
Anaerobic digestion of waste wafer material from the confectionery production
This paper presents results of semi-continuous mesophilic anaerobic digestion of waste wafer materials at high loadings. The digestion was carried out in a partially mixed horizontal fermenter. A model digestion was conducted in a way that the volume of the fermenter reached a high intensity of methane production at a low production of digestate without the addition of trace elements. For this reason, the waste was fed in a concentrated form. The intensity of dry biogas production was 6.44 mN(3) m(-3)d(-1) with the average methane content of 55.1 vol% at the average load of 8.23 kgvs m(-3) d(-1) during 203 days and the average hydraulic retention time of 148 days. The process was running stably at C:N ratio 5.3:1, at pH between 7.5 and 8.2, at the average temperature 39.7 degrees C and the ratio of total inorganic carbonate to the sum of lower fatty acids about 1:1. The specific biogas yield from waste wafer material was 0.703 mN(3) kg(-1). The digestate contained 13.4 wt% of total dry matter in average with the loss on ignition of 75.4 wt% for the whole process. The dry matter of digestate contained 10 wt% of lipids and to 3.5 wt% of lower fatty acids. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.