Optimization of Solid State Anaerobic Digestion by inoculum recirculation: The case of an existing Mechanical Biological Treatment plant

Francesco Di Maria, Alessio Sordi and Caterina Micale

Applied Energy, 2012, vol. 97, issue C, 462-469

Abstract: The energetic exploitation of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste treated in an existing Mechanical Biological Treatment plant was found to be successful by the Solid State Anaerobic Digestion. The amount of inoculum used per tonne of waste for starting the anaerobic process was shown to have a relevant effect on both biogas and biomethane production. For a waste-to-inoculum ratio ranging from 1:1 to 1:3 (w/w), the energy production increased from about 100kWh/tonne to about 380kWh/tonne of waste organic fraction. Consequently, the investment costs also rise, going from about 180€ to more than 370€/tonne of treated municipal solid waste organic fraction. The economic optimization analysis showed that the waste-to-inoculum ratio that minimized the treatment cost, ranged from 1:1.5 to 1:2.5, being strongly influenced by the plant size (i.e. electrical efficiency) and by the Green Certificate value. Considering the cost of producing electrical energy, the optimum ratio was 1:2, leading to a cost of 0.26€/kWh, during the investment period, and of 0.14€/kWh after the investment period.

Keywords: Anaerobic Digestion; Biogas; Organic fraction of municipal solid waste; Solid state; Waste to energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261911008993
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:appene:v:97:y:2012:i:c:p:462-469

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2011.12.093

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

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