Enhancing the energetic potential of sugarcane biorefinery exchanging vinasse and glycerol in sugarcane off-season in an anaerobic reactor

Paula Yumi Takeda, Cristiane Arruda Oliveira, Maria Eduarda Simões Dias, Carolina Tavares Paula, André do Vale Borges and Márcia Helena Rissato Zamariolli Damianovic

Renewable Energy, 2022, vol. 195, issue C, 1218-1229

Abstract: Anaerobic digestion is a viable process to recover bioenergy through sugarcane vinasse in the form of methane. However, interruptions in the anaerobic reactors operation during the sugarcane off-season is clearly a challenge to the anaerobic systems’ performance, which potentially negatively compromise the energy balance in a sugarcane biorefinery. Glycerol, a by-product of biodiesel production, is a viable option for vinasse replacement in the off-season period. Anaerobic co-digestion of these wastewaters can promote improvements in operational conditions and enhance energy recovery. Thus, this study evaluated the exchange of substrates, vinasse and glycerol, in an anaerobic structured bed reactor (AnSTBR), using glycerol as substrate in off-season and vinasse in the following harvest season, in mono- and co-digestion processes. The AnSTBR operation showed promising results regarding the organic matter removal (higher than 80%, in terms of chemical oxygen demand) and methane yields (higher than 225 NmLCH4.g−1CODrem). The methane produced, for a cycle of harvest, off-season and harvest again, can improve approximately 17.5% the energy generation in the sugarcane biorefinery, using glycerol as substrate, instead of shutting down the anaerobic reactor in off-season, resulting in a positive economic balance. Furthermore, the operational strategy of gradually exchanging substrates ensured the system stability throughout the operation.

Keywords: Anaerobic co-digestion; Bioenergy recovery; Methane; AnSTBR; Long-term (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148122009685
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:195:y:2022:i:c:p:1218-1229

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2022.06.128

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().