A Simple Method for the Detection of Long-Chain Fatty Acids in an Anaerobic Digestate Using a Quartz Crystal Sensor

Takuro Kobayashi, Hidetoshi Kuramochi, Kouji Maeda and Kaiqin Xu
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Takuro Kobayashi: Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba 305-8506, Japan
Hidetoshi Kuramochi: Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba 305-8506, Japan
Kouji Maeda: School of Engineering, University of Hyogo, 2167 Shosha, Himeji 671-2201, Japan
Kaiqin Xu: Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba 305-8506, Japan

Energies, 2016, vol. 10, issue 1, 1-14

Abstract: In anaerobic digestion (AD), long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) produced by hydrolysis of lipids, exhibit toxicity against microorganisms when their concentration exceeds several millimolar. An absorption detection system using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) was developed to monitor the LCFA concentration during an anaerobic digester’s operation treating oily organic waste. The dissociation of the LCFAs considerably improved the sensor response and, moreover, enabled it to specifically detect LCFA from the mixture of LCFA and triglyceride. Under alkaline conditions, the frequency-shift rates of the QCM sensor linearly increased in accordance with palmitic acid concentration in the range of 0–100 mg/L. Frequency changes caused by anaerobic digestate samples were successfully measured after removing suspended solids and adjusting the pH to 10.7. Finally, the QCM measurements for digestate samples demonstrated that frequency-shift rates are highly correlated with LCFA concentrations, which confirmed that the newly developed QCM sensor is helpful for LCFA monitoring in terms of rapidness and usability.

Keywords: quartz crystal microbalance (QCM); long-chain fatty acids (LCFA); anaerobic digestion (AD); inhibition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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