Methane production in an AnSBBR by soy molasses treatment

Abstract

Research projects focusing on the study of anaerobic sequencing bioreactor, operated in batch or fed-batch mode, aiming to improve the effluent treatment performance for biogas production and the feasibility of its application, especially regarding environmental compliance, have been addressed by the research group of the Escola de Engenharia Mauá do Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia (EEM/IMT) since 1998 with the support of FAPESP. At the moment the projects are directed towards the application of biorefinery concept, with recovery of high-value products, biofuels and energy, besides fulfilling a main function of mitigating the environmental effects of launching domestic, industrial and agricultural dumping in the environment. These projects are linked to the Thematic Project entitled "Biorefinery concept applied to biological wastewater treatment plants: environmental pollution control coupled with material and energy recovery" (Process No. 15/06.246-7).The application of anaerobic sequencing batch and/or fed-batch biofilm reactor containing immobilized biomass in inert support and with recirculation of liquid phase or mechanically stirred (AnSBBR) presented promising results obtained on laboratory scale, applied to different types of wastewater such as glucose/sucrose basis, automotive industry, personal care industry, metallurgical industry, brewery, dairy products rich in lipids, acidogenic reactor effluent, domestic sewage, cheese whey and vinasse. Furthermore, some studies were performed with different types of mixture (mechanical agitation and recirculation of liquid phase), immobilization support materials, feeding time (batch and/or fed-batch mode), different cycle times and temperature.In this context, considering the scope of study of bioenergy production, this project will be directed to the evaluation of the AnSBBR reactor applied to methane production by the treatment of soy molasses in mesophilic condition. The influence of the feeding strategy and the applied volumetric organic load, altered accordingly to the influent concentration, besides the temperature, over the system stability, organic matter conversion, yield, productivity and methane composition will be assessed. (AU)