The Use of Hydrodynamic Cavitation to Improve the Anaerobic Digestion of Waste from Dairy Cattle Farming—From Laboratory Tests to Large-Scale Agricultural Biogas Plants

Marcin Dębowski (), Joanna Kazimierowicz, Anna Nowicka, Magda Dudek and Marcin Zieliński
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Marcin Dębowski: Department of Environment Engineering, Faculty of Geoengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Str. Oczapowskiego 5, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland
Joanna Kazimierowicz: Department of Water Supply and Sewage Systems, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Bialystok University of Technology, 15-351 Bialystok, Poland
Anna Nowicka: Department of Environment Engineering, Faculty of Geoengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Str. Oczapowskiego 5, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland
Magda Dudek: Department of Environment Engineering, Faculty of Geoengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Str. Oczapowskiego 5, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland
Marcin Zieliński: Department of Environment Engineering, Faculty of Geoengineering, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Str. Oczapowskiego 5, 10-719 Olsztyn, Poland

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 6, 1-26

Abstract: There is a need to find methods to intensify the anaerobic digestion process. One possibility is the use of pretreatment techniques. Many laboratory tests confirm their effectiveness, but in most cases, there is no verification work carried out on industrial plants. A reliable and complete evaluation of new solutions can only be carried out in plants that reflect operating conditions at a higher readiness technological level. This has a direct impact on the scientific value and, above all, on the high application value of innovative technologies. The aim of our research carried out under laboratory conditions and on a large scale was to determine the technological and energy efficiency of the use of hydrodynamic cavitation in the pretreatment of a waste mixture from dairy farms. It has been shown that hydrodynamic cavitation significantly increases the concentration of organic compounds in the dissolved phase. In the most effective variants, the increase in the content of these indicators was over 90% for both COD and TOC. The degree of solubilisation achieved was 49 ± 2.6% for COD and almost 52 ± 4.4% for TOC. Under laboratory conditions, the highest effects of anaerobic digestion were achieved after 10 min of pretreatment. The amount of biogas was, on average, 367 ± 18 mL/gCOD, and the amount of methane was 233 ± 13 mL/gCOD. Further large-scale optimisation trials showed that after 8 min of hydrodynamic cavitation, the biogas yield was 327 ± 8 L/kgCOD with a CH 4 content of 62.9 ± 1.9%. With this variant, the net energy yield was 66.4 ± 2.6 kWh/day, a value that was 13.9% higher than the original variant with 10 min of disintegration and 3.1% higher than the variant without pretreatment.

Keywords: cattle manure; milking station; anaerobic digestion; pretreatment; hydrodynamic cavitation; biogas; methane; energy efficiency (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: 2024
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