 Enhanced methane production from algal digestion using free nitrous acid pre-treatmentXue Bai, Paul A. Lant, Paul D. Jensen, Sergi Astals and Steven Pratt Renewable Energy, 2016, vol. 88, issue C, 383-390 Abstract: The methane yield from the digestion of algae is typically much lower than the theoretical methane yield, and lower than yields reported for other organic substrates. This study presents a novel free nitrous acid (FNA) pre-treatment technique to improve methane production from algal biomass. The methane production yield through anaerobic digestion was found to be dramatically enhanced by FNA pre-treatment (2.31 mg HNO2–N L−1), with a 51% increase in the methane yield (from 161 to 250 L CH4 per kg VS added). A two substrate model was used to describe the apparent presence of rapid and slowly degradable material. Model-based analysis revealed that with FNA pre-treatment (2.31 mg HNO2–N L−1), the availability of both rapid and slowly biodegradable substrates were increased. Higher levels of nitrite (159 and 1006 mg N L−1) had an inhibitory/toxic effect. For this reason, coupled with the fact that denitrification of nitrite consumes organic substrate, it is concluded that pre-treatment liquor should be removed before digestion. Keywords: Free nitrous acid; Algae; Anaerobic digestion; Biogas; Inhibition (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:88:y:2016:i:c:p:383-390 DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2015.11.054 Access Statistics for this article Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier |
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