AnSBBR Applied to Biomethane Production by the Treatment of Vinasse, Whey and Glycerin: Effects of Mesophilic and Thermophilic Conditions

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion allows organic matter conversion into final products such as methane by microorganism activity. Over the last decades, engineering has adapted this process into anaerobic bioreactors with different configurations for wastewater treatment aimed at biogas production. Among reactor types, the anaerobic sequencing batch reactor (ASBR) is one of the several high rate configurations and it appears as an alternative to continuous systems. It presents advantages such as better effluent control and simple operation comprised in four steps: feed, reaction, settling of granular biomass and decant. Another configuration consists in the anaerobic sequencing batch biofilm reactor (AnSBBR), in which the biomass is immobilized in inert support. It enables the elimination of the settling step, thus reducing the overall cycle time. Although they have different biomass arrangements, the operational factors tend to be the same: agitation, food/microorganism ratio, reactor configuration and feed strategy. AnSBBRs have been applied to mesophilic and thermophilic treatment of wastewaters from agroindustry such as vinasse (bioethanol production), whey (dairy industry), and glycerin (biodiesel production) with various operational strategies: feeding mode, temperature, organic load, influent concentration and cycle time. Therefore, this study presents an overview of achievements of studies that used AnSBBRs digesting agroindustry wastes for methane production, focused on operational strategy and perspectives for scale-up estimative. © 2019 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.