Slaughterhouse waste co-digestion - Experiences from 15 years of full-scale operation

• At Tekniska Verken in Linköping AB (TVAB) there is a long time experience of handling and producing biogas from large volumes of slaughterhouse waste. Experiences from research and development and plant operations have lead to the implementation of several process improving technological/biological solutions. We can in this paper describe how the improvements have had several positive effects on the process, including energy savings, better odor control, higher gas quality, increased organic loading rates and higher biogas production with maintained process stability. In addition, it is described how much of the process stability in anaerobic digestion of slaughter house waste relates to the plant operation, which allow the microbiological consortia to adapt to the substrate. Since digestion of proteinaceous substrates like slaughterhouse waste lead to high ammonia loads, special requirements in ammonia tolerance are placed on the microbiota of the anaerobic digestion. Biochemical assays revealed that the main route for methane production proceed through syntrophic acetate oxidation, which require longer retention times than methane production by acetoclastic methanogens. Thus, the long retention time of the plant, accomplished by a low dilution of the substrate, is a vital component of the process stability when treating high protein substrates like slaughterhouse waste.

Nyckelord

Anaerobic digestion

co-digestion

full-scale

slaughterhouse waste

syntrophic acetate oxidation

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