Authors: Conklin, Anne S.; Zahller, Jeffery D.; Stensel, H. David; Ferguson, John F.

Source: Proceedings of the Water Environment Federation, WEFTEC 2005: Session 41 through Session 50 , pp. 3426-3426(1)

Publisher: Water Environment Federation

Abstract:

Understanding anaerobic digester stability is crucial for wastewater treatment plants interested in increasing solids loading rates. Acetoclastic methanogens have often been seen as key to digester stability. Current methods to characterize the digester stability cannot identify digesters on the verge of failure and cannot determine the digestion capacity. This paper develops a batch bottle test assay to measure digester stability by measuring the maximum acetoclastic methane production rate (V_max,ac). The V_max,ac method was used to monitor full- and lab-scale digesters throughout upset conditions. It was found that the V_max,ac in combination with acetate concentrations was an effective digestion monitoring tool. The V_max,ac of several lab- and full-scale digesters was determined. Thermophilic, first stage and short SRT digesters generally had a greater V_max,ac than mesophilic, second stage or long SRT digesters. The ratio of the V_max,ac to the plant acetoclastic methane production rate (V_plant,ac), termed the Acetate Capacity Number (ACN), is a measure of the digestion excess capacity. The ACN was less than 1 during digestion upsets. Monod modeling is used to predict V_max,ac and ACN for mesophilic and thermophilic digestion and for staged digesters.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2175/193864705783865839

Publication date: 2005-01-01

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