I was wondering if adding a carbon source and increasing the total solids concentration could be beneficial to wastewater stabilization through anaerobic digestion processes. Easily degradable carbon compounds could be low in wastewaters, while recalcitrant (and environmentally undesirable) compounds may be relatively abundant. Could the addition of biomasses (high C/N ratio, low loisture content) increase the overall efficiency of the process? More in general, could the co-digestion of wastewaters (or wastes) and agricultural feedstock provide some advantages?
Lignocellulosic compounds are not realy degradable in anaerobic treatment so there is no co-digestion process. Straw is still straw after digestion. The residence time should be high.
The only way it can help is by adsorption.
On a other way. What is your actual total solid concentration at the entry of the reactor?
it is difficult to explain but:
- if you have already a high amount of solids you will have almost the same residence time for your wastewater and of course for your feedstock. Not good.
-if you don't have or have very few amount of solids at the entry, you can manage the residence time of the feedstock and increase it compared to the wastewater. In that way you will increase the residence time of your recalcitrant compounds. And may be their degradation.
I don't have any certainty about that and especialy in anaerobis process. But I know there are some phenomen like this in some biofilter (small residence time but degradation by adsorption on the biofilm)
You also must pay attention to the fact that if you have adsorption and no degradation, our feedstock will be highly polluted and if the residence is long enough to degrade the straw (i.e), the compounds will go back to the wastewater.
There all ready is a large amount of cellulose in the inbound fluid, called toilet paper. Adding more cellulose to the mix probably not help as the microbes involved are not well adapted to the consumption of cellulose. This is evident at the back end of the waste water process by the production of large quantities of sewer cake. This material is a colloid with a very high water content. The high water content precludes land filing.
We have proven the cellulose can be removed and the colloid broken by using the Managed Ecosystem Fermentation process.The MEF process uses a microbial ecosystem that specifically consumes cellulose. Attached is a photo showing the breakdown of sewer cake in a 24 hour period using the fluid from the MEF process. The flask on the left shows the decomposed sewer cake. The flask on the right is the control sample of sewer cake in water after the same period of time. The makor difference is the grit/ flocculant can now be easily extracted. The water that has been released can be returned to the beginning of the waste water treatment for reprocesing. The proteins produced can be extracted and used for making adhesives or used as surfacing material in the paper making process.
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