Anaerobic Processes

Abstract

The anaerobic processes literature review contains a comprehensive discussion of articles published in 2010 with emphasis on biological wastewater treatment processes that exploit an environment devoid of oxygen. Anaerobic systems, like the upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor and the anaerobic filter (AF), represent the traditional emphasis of anaerobic processes literature review. Anaerobic hydrogen production and anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) have been incorporated more recently into this chapter of the literature review. This year's anaerobic processes literature review is divided into the following sections: integrated approaches, modeling advances, process technology, hydrogen production, microbiology, anammox, treatability studies, and inhibition of the anaerobic process. Integrated Approaches The integrated approaches section incorporates research concerning pretreatment and post-treatment steps used to enhance the anaerobic processes. Research regarding co-digestion of agricultural, municipal, and other wastes is included in this section. Additionally, evaluation of coupled technologies is considered; e.g. anaerobic digestion (AD) incorporated into ethanol facilities to enhance overall conversion of cellulose to useful products. Pretreatment. High crystalline cellulose was pretreated with N-methyl-morpholine-N-oxide (NMMO) at 90-120°C for 0.5-15 h in three different types of NMMO solutions (Jeihanipour et al., 2010). Pretreatment with NMMO resulted in complete digestion of cellulose after 15 d with a corresponding biogas yield of 415 L/kg-cellulose.The use of alkaline, solid-state pretreatment of corn stover with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) concentrations of 1%, 2.5%, 5.0%, and 7.5% was investigated for improving lignin degradation and biogas production potential (Zhu, Wan, et al., 2010). Lignin degradation increased from 9.1% to 46.2% for NaOH concentrations from 1% to 7.5%, respectively, and biogas yield peaked at 372.4 L/kg-volatile solids (VS) for an NaOH concentration of 5%. A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of thermal pretreatment at 70-90°C on biogas production, solubilization of organic compounds, the release of inorganic species, and the effect

A comprehensive review on rheological studies of sludge from various sections of municipal wastewater treatment plants for enhancement of process performance

“…The most common, preferred and cost effective process in the wastewater treatment plant to achieve significant sludge volume reduction is the anaerobic digestion process [10,16,[141][142][143]. The digestion process occurs in three stages, namely hydrolysis, acidogesis and methanogenesis.…”