Investigating the effects of applied electricity and ammonia concentration on the performance and biogas production of anaerobic bacteria.

Fruehwirth, Isabelle (2021) Investigating the effects of applied electricity and ammonia concentration on the performance and biogas production of anaerobic bacteria. Master's Research Project 1, Energy and Environmental Sciences.

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Abstract

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a method which produces biogas through the treatment of bio-waste. However, there are limitations in the process such as low conversion to biogas and poor quality of biogas (high CO2 content) which limits the application of biogas. Multiple factors play a role in the operation of the AD process. Ammonia is necessary for microorganism growth, but can inhibit methanogenesis in high quantities. The first part of this paper investigates the effect of NH4Cl concentration on the methanogenic activity. Reactors with 10 g/L NH4Cl performed the best for biogas production at 59 ml/day, while reactors with 4 g/L NH4Cl resulted in the best biogas quality, with 56.7 mol% CH4, and 43.7 mol% CO2. Secondly, there have been recent studies which demonstrated the improvement of methanogenic activity in AD systems through application of a milli-voltage, through a microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) reactor set up. Two-chambered MECs reactors are difficult and expensive to upscale. Thus, the second part of this paper investigates the effects of a single chamber MECs on the performance and biogas production of anaerobic bacteria. The data suggests that the addition of a milli-voltage is advantageous in terms of the volume of biogas production. Batch MEC experiments with 1.34 V / 0.006 A performs the best both in terms of production rate and total gas production. The batch MECs reactor is then set up as a continuous system for further application.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master's Research Project 1)
Supervisor name:	Euverink, G.J.W.
Degree programme:	Energy and Environmental Sciences
Thesis type:	Master's Research Project 1
Language:	English
Date Deposited:	25 Aug 2021 16:42
Last Modified:	25 Aug 2021 16:42
URI:	https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/25787

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