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The composting process is an option for acceptable environmental management of cattle slaughterhouse by-products. The goals of this article were (i) to make a low-cost inoculum using popular supermarket ingredients and microorganisms that are already present in the composting environment, and (ii) to compare the efficiency of the composting process with and without the application of formulated inoculum. Initially, a consortium of microorganisms already present in the composting environment (

The operation of power-to-X systems requires measures to control the cost and sustainability of electricity purchased from spot markets. This study investigated different bidding strategies for the day-ahead market with a special focus on Sweden. A price independent order (PIO) strategy was developed assisted by forecasting electricity prices with an artificial neural network. For comparison, a price dependent order (PDO) with fixed bid price was used. The bidding strategies were used to simulate H2 production with both alkaline and proton exchange membrane electrolysers in different years and technological scenarios. Results showed that using PIO to control H2 production helped to avoid the purchase of expensive and carbon intense electricity during peak loads, but it also reduced the total number of operating hours compared to PDO. For this reason, under optimal conditions for both bidding strategies, PDO resulted in an average of 10.9% lower levelised cost of H2, and more attractive cash flows and net present values than PIO. Nevertheless, PIO showed to be a useful strategy to control costs in years with unexpected hourly price behaviour such as 2018. Furthermore, PIO could be successfully demonstrated in a practical case study to fulfil the on-demand requirement of an industrial captive customer.

International audience; Recalcitrant dyes found in textile wastewater represent a threat for sustainable textile production due to their resistance toconventional treatments. This study assessed an alternative co-composting system for the treatment of recalcitrant textile dyeswhere textile industrial sludge, sewage wastewater, or sewage sludge were used as microbial compost inocula. The biodegradationefficiency of bioreactor trials and compost quality of the co-composting system were assessed by visible spectrophotometryand by a phytotoxicity test. The co-composting system (dry weight (dw) basis) consisted of 200 g of restaurant organic residues +200 g sewage sludge (or 100 mL sewage wastewater, or 200 g textile sludge) + 100 mL of a 10%dye solution (Reactive Red 195,or Synolon Brown, or Orange Remazol, or Yellow Synozol, or Reactive Orange 122, or Reactive Black 5). After 60 days ofcomposting, all dyes were biodegraded according to spectrophotometric data, with efficiency varying from 97.2 to 99.9%.Inoculum efficiency ranking was textile sludge > sewage sludge > sewage wastewater. Regarding compost quality, a phytotoxicitystudy with lettuce showed no toxicity effect. Thus, co-composting can be a low-cost and efficient method for recalcitranttextile dye biodegradation and for managing textile sludge in terms of waste recycling, contributing to environmentalsustainability.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of sugarcane filter cake (SFC) was investigated by comparing the performance of pre-treatment methods in biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests and semi-continuous experiments. For that, SFC was pre-treated by autoclaving the substrate alone or with sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Experimental data from BMP tests were fitted to a kinetics model and further used for simulating the AD process in a continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR). BMP tests showed differences (p 0.05) in terms of methane yield were observed among the reactors (average of 224 mL CH4 gVS−1). These results demonstrate that the benefits of pre-treatment could only be observed in BMP tests, which is likely explained by a better adaptation of the microbial community to the substrate during long term semi-continuous experiment, making SFC pre-treatment ineffective in a single-stage CSTR and under this feeding regime.

Ensiling of sugarcane trash (SCT) and sugarcane stalks (SCS) was studied to assess the effects of molasses (MOL) and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) inoculant on methane potential. The experiment was run for 70 days and monitoring parameters were analyzed at days 0, 5, 15 and 70. Biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests performed with fresh and ensiled material at day 70 showed an increase in methane potential by 24.0%, 23.4%, 1.7% and 71.1% for SCSctr, SCTctr, SCTmol and SCTmol + lab, respectively. Such improved performance is explained by the formation of organic acids (mostly acetate and lactate) which were able to decrease the pH of the silages from 5.7–5.9 to 3.8–4.2 for all SCT treatments and from 5.9 up to 3.4 for SCS treatment. Thus, the ensiling process provided similar effects to a pre-treatment at low acid concentrations, which in turn improved the digestibility of the cellulosic biomass for methane production.

The integration of power-to-gas (PtG) technology into existing urban anaerobic digestion (AD) plants could be an interesting concept to recycle biogenic CO2 and increase CH4 production as renewable fuel to further decarbonize public transport buses (PTB). However, such implementation is challenging for several reasons, including power restrictions during peak load, physical and temporal availability of CO2 from AD plants, and the need for expensive intermediate gas storages to avoid mismatch between the constrained synthetic CH4 production and the variable fuel demand. To investigate whether synthetic CH4 could be a feasible alternative for buses currently powered by fossil fuels, a dynamic model was built for discrete-event simulations of PtG technology integrated into an urban AD plant designed to supply biomethane as fuel for bus fleets. Different scenarios were assessed, including variations in power availability to run a proton exchange membrane electrolyser as well as variations in the production scale of synthetic CH4 based on ex-situ biological methanation. The results show that a constrained power utilization (maximum of 12 h per day) increased the production cost of synthetic CH4 by 20%. In contrast, an increase in PtG production capacity from 0.75 MWth to 2.25 MWth decreased costs by 16%. From the PTB operators’ perspective, the total cost of ownership (TCO) increased in all analysed scenarios when replacing diesel buses by gas buses powered by synthetic CH4. However, when using synthetic CH4 as drop-in fuel to replace natural gas in existing gas bus fleets, the TCO could be reduced up to 4.4% depending on the PtG plant configuration and the assumed fossil fuel price. Furthermore, our results show that a carbon tax on fossil fuels has only a limited effect on promoting synthetic CH4 as alternative fuel for PTB, and additional incentives should be put in place to prioritize a fuel switch, especially for existing gas bus fleets.

It is currently unclear whether trace elements (TEs) deficiency is due to low bioavailability or low absolute TEs concentrations, especially in high-pH anaerobic digestion (AD) systems. A mixed solution of TEs and EDTA-Na

The concept of year-round biogas production to increase the capacity factor of anaerobic digestion (AD) plants in sugarcane biorefineries was investigated for the first time in semi-continuous feeding mode. To simulate the use of sugarcane vinasse during the sugarcane season and sugarcane filter cake (SFC) during the off-season period, a two-stage reactor system based on an acidogenic continuous stirred-tank reactor (1st stage) followed by solid–liquid separation and an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor (2nd stage) to convert the COD-rich liquid fraction into biogas was operated. Additionally, to optimize the biogas production from SFC, the effects of its thermo-chemical pre-treatment on AD were investigated in a parallel reactor set-up. The saponification effect provided by autoclaving the substrate with sodium hydroxide improved the hydrolysis/fermentation of SFC in the acidogenic reactor, which in turn resulted in a 28% higher volumetric methane production in the methanogenic reactor (p 60% of the substrate’s methane potential). Nevertheless, the capacity factor of the AD plants in sugarcane biorefineries could be increased from 0.55 up to 0.69 when considering a 200 d a−1 sugarcane season (0.66–0.83 for a longer season of 240 d a−1), representing an increase of 25.7%. The average capacity factor for biogas combined heat and power and upgrading units of around 0.91 (8000 h a−1) would be reached if further developments could improve the solubilization of non-hydrolyzed/fermented solids or alternatively allow their direct use in the methanogenic reactor.

Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as an alkaline pretreatment method to enhance the degradation kinetics of sugarcane straw (SCS) for methane production was investigated with a special focus on the benefits for designing the anaerobic digestion process. For that, SCS was previously homogenized by milling in 2 mm particle size and pretreated in NaOH solutions at various concentrations (0, 3, 6 and 12 g NaOH/100 g SCS) and the methane yields were determined in biochemical methane potential (BMP) tests. The obtained experimental data were used to simulate a large-scale semi-continuous process (100 ton SCS day −1 ) according to a first-order reaction model and the main economic indicators were calculated based on cash flows of each pretreatment condition. The BMP tests showed that by increasing the NaOH concentration the conversion of the fibrous fraction of the substrate to methane was not only accelerated (higher α value), but also increased by 11.9% (from 260 to 291 mL CH 4 gVS −1 ). By using the experimental data to simulate the large-scale process these benefits were translated to a reduction of up to 58% in the size of the anaerobic reactor (and consequently in electricity consumption for stirring), while the methane yield increased up to 28%, if the liquid fraction derived from the pretreatment process is also used for methane production. Although the use of NaOH for substrate pretreatment has considerably increased the operational expenditures (from 0.97 up to 1.97 € × 10 6 year −1 ), the pretreatment method was able to increase the profitability of methane production from SCS since a sensitivity analysis by varying the prices of anaerobic reactor, methane and NaOH showed a less attractive payback, net present value and internal rate of return for the control condition (0 g NaOH/100 g SCS) in all analyzed scenarios.

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of Chicken manure (CM) often faces several obstacles such as high total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) concentration, inclusion of many hard-to-decompose litters as wood chips, and presence of inorganic soil particles. To address these obstacles, degradable fractions of CM were extracted by leaching and the chicken manure leachate (CML) obtained was used for AD. The effects of trace element (TE) supplementation in stimulating microbial activity and enhancing the AD process, under increasing organic loading rate (OLR) and TAN concentration, were investigated. The results showed that CML was successfully converted, reaching a stable methane yield of 288 mL g−1 VS when TAN was lower than 1.5 g L−1. Under higher OLR (0.85 gVS L−1 d−1) and TAN (2.64 g L−1), TEs supplementation gave 36.5% higher methane yield (p

In this study, the effects of nitrogen, phosphate and trace elements supplementation were investigated in a semi-continuously operated upflow anaerobic sludge blanket system to enhance process stability and biogas production from sugarcane vinasse. Phosphate in form of KH2PO4 induced volatile fatty acids accumulation possibly due to potassium inhibition of the methanogenesis. Although nitrogen in form of urea increased the reactor's alkalinity, the process was overloaded with an organic loading rate of 6.1gCODL(-1)d(-1) and a hydraulic retention time of 3.6days. However, by supplementing urea and trace elements a stable operation even at an organic loading rate of 9.6gCODL(-1)d(-1) and a hydraulic retention time of 2.5days was possible, resulting in 79% higher methane production rate with a stable specific methane production of 239mLgCOD(-1).

Different methods for optimization the anaerobic digestion (AD) of sugarcane filter cake (FC) with a special focus on volatile fatty acids (VFA) production were studied. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) pretreatment at different concentrations was investigated in batch experiments and the cumulative methane yields fitted to a dual-pool two-step model to provide an initial assessment on AD. The effects of nitrogen supplementation in form of urea and NaOH pretreatment for improved VFA production were evaluated in a semi-continuously operated reactor as well. The results indicated that higher NaOH concentrations during pretreatment accelerated the AD process and increased methane production in batch experiments. Nitrogen supplementation resulted in a VFA loss due to methane formation by buffering the pH value at nearly neutral conditions (∼ 6.7). However, the alkaline pretreatment with 6g NaOH/100g FCFM improved both the COD solubilization and the VFA yield by 37%, mainly consisted by n-butyric and acetic acids.

Biogas production from sugarcane waste has large potential for energy generation, however, to enable the optimization of the anaerobic digestion (AD) process each substrate characteristic should be carefully evaluated. In this study, the kinetic challenges for biogas production from different types of sugarcane waste were assessed. Samples of vinasse, filter cake, bagasse, and straw were analyzed in terms of total and volatile solids, chemical oxygen demand, macronutrients, trace elements, and nutritional value. Biochemical methane potential assays were performed to evaluate the energy potential of the substrates according to different types of sugarcane plants. Methane yields varied considerably (5–181 Nm3·tonFM−1), mainly due to the different substrate characteristics and sugar and/or ethanol production processes. Therefore, for the optimization of AD on a large-scale, continuous stirred-tank reactor with long hydraulic retention times (&gt, 35 days) should be used for biogas production from bagasse and straw, coupled with pre-treatment process to enhance the degradation of the fibrous carbohydrates. Biomass immobilization systems are recommended in case vinasse is used as substrate, due to its low solid content, while filter cake could complement the biogas production from vinasse during the sugarcane offseason, providing a higher utilization of the biogas system during the entire year.

Anaerobic digestion appears to be a favorable option to optimize the energetic exploitation and reduce the environmental impacts of bioethanol waste products. Some analytical characteristics of these waste products are available in various sources. However, these data are too incomplete and unsystematic to be compared among the bioethanol industries. Design of biogas processes based on such data has to deal with considerable unknowns regarding the technical feasibility and operating costs. Therefore, to better understand and assess the applicability of these bioethanol waste products in anaerobic digestion, the micro- and macro-element concentrations, the physicochemical parameters, and the methane potential were analyzed. In addition to the assessment of seasonal variations, the effect of alkaline and mechanical treatments was also investigated for lignocellulosic bagasse samples. Possible deficiencies of the trace elements Ni, Co, Mo, Se, and W in vinasse as a substrate for anaerobic digestion were reco...

Biogas generation opens new possibilities for the use of legume growths and thus for legume cropping, as quality restrictions are lower than for other forms of utilization. The German example of energy cropping shows the possibility of up to 20% of forage legume integration for bioenergy production into the cropping systems. This can allow an improvement of sustainability and resilience, especially with regard to reduced external inputs, improved humus, energy and nutrient balances, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and the general positive impact of forage and intercrop legumes on cropping systems.

Anaerobic digestion of sugarcane straw co-digested with sugarcane filter cake was investigated with a special focus on macronutrients supplementation for an optimized conversion process. Experimental data from batch tests and a semi-continuous experiment operated in different supplementation phases were used for modeling the conversion kinetics based on continuous stirred-tank reactors. The semi-continuous experiment showed an overall decrease in the performance along the inoculum washout from the reactors. By supplementing nitrogen alone or in combination to phosphorus and sulfur the specific methane production significantly increased (P 0.99), the use of the depicted kinetics did not provide a good estimation for process simulation of the semi-continuous process (in any supplementation phase), possibly due to the different feeding modes and inoculum source, activity and adaptation.

Background During strategic planning of a biogas plant, the local availability of resources for start-up and operation should be taken into consideration for a cost-efficient process. Because most bioethanol/sugar industries in Brazil are located in remote areas, the use of fresh cattle manure from local farms could be a solution for the inoculation of the biogas process. This study investigated the diversity and dynamics of bacterial and archaeal communities and the performance of biogas reactors inoculated with manure and a mixed inoculum from different biogas reactors as for a controlled start-up until steady state. Results Laboratory-scale biogas reactors were fed semi-continuously with sugarcane filter cake alone (mono-digestion) or together with bagasse (co-digestion). At the initial start-up, the reactors inoculated with the mixed inoculum displayed a less diverse taxonomic composition, but with higher presence of significant abundances compared to reactors inoculated with manure. However, in the final steady state, the communities of the differently inoculated reactors were very similarly characterized by predominance of the methanogenic genera Methanosarcina and Methanobacterium, the bacterial families Bacteroidaceae, Prevotellaceae and Porphyromonadaceae (phylum Bacteroidetes) and Synergistaceae (phylum Synergistetes). In the mono-digestion reactors, the methanogenic communities varied greater than in the co-digestion reactors independently of the inoculation strategy. Conclusion The microbial communities involved in the biogas production from waste products of the Brazilian bioethanol/sugar industry were relatively similar and stable at the reactor’s steady phase independently of the inoculum source (manure or mixed inoculum). Therefore, the locally available manure can be used as inoculum for start-up of the biogas process, since it also contains the microbial resources needed. The strong fluctuation of methanogenic communities in mono-digestion reactors indicates higher risk of process instability than in co-digestion reactors. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13068-016-0548-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The anaerobic digestion of filter cake and its co-digestion with bagasse, and the effect of gradual increase of the organic loading rate (OLR) from start-up to overload were investigated. Understanding the influence of environmental and technical parameters on the development of particular methanogenic pathway in the biogas process was an important aim for the prediction and prevention of process failure. The rapid accumulation of volatile organic acids at high OLR of 3.0 to 4.0 gvs·L−1·day−1 indicated strong process inhibition. Methanogenic community dynamics of the reactors was monitored by stable isotope composition of biogas and molecular biological analysis. A potential shift toward the aceticlastic methanogenesis was observed along with the OLR increase under stable reactor operating conditions. Reactor overloading and process failure were indicated by the tendency to return to a predominance of hydrogenotrophic methanogenesis with rising abundances of the orders Methanobacteriales and Methanomicrobiales and drop of the genus Methanosarcina abundance.

The anaerobic digestion of sugarcane filter cake and the option of co-digestion with bagasse were investigated in a semi-continuous feeding regime to assess the main parameters used for large-scale process designing. Moreover, fresh cattle manure was considered as alternative inoculum for the start-up of biogas reactors in cases where digestate from a biogas plant would not be available in remote rural areas. Experiments were carried out in 6 lab-scale semi-continuous stirred-tank reactors at mesophilic conditions (38±1°C) while the main anaerobic digestion process parameters monitored. Fresh cattle manure demonstrated to be appropriate for the start-up process. However, an acclimation period was required due to the high initial volatile fatty acids concentration (8.5gL(-1)). Regardless the mono-digestion of filter cake presented 50% higher biogas yield (480mLgVS(-1)) than co-digestion with bagasse (320mLgVS(-1)) during steady state conditions. A large-scale co-digestion system would produce 58% more biogas (1008m(3)h(-1)) than mono-digestion of filter cake (634m(3)h(-1)) due to its higher biomass availability for biogas conversion. Considering that the biogas production rate was the technical parameter that displayed the most relevant differences between the analyzed substrate options (0.99-1.45m(3)biogasm(3)d(-1)). The decision of which substrate option should be implemented in practice would be mainly driven by the available construction techniques, since economically efficient tanks could compensate the lower biogas production rate of co-digestion option.

In Brazil, Solid Waste Disposal Sites have operated without consideration of environmental criteria, these areas being characterized by methane (CH4) emissions during the anaerobic degradation of organic matter. The United Nations organization has made efforts to control this situation, through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, where projects that seek to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) can be financially rewarded through Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) if they respect the requirements established by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), such as the use of methodologies approved by the CDM Executive Board (CDM-EB). Thus, a methodology was developed according to the CDM standards related to the aeration, excavation and composting of closed Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) landfills, which was submitted to CDM-EB for assessment and, after its approval, applied to a real case study in Maringá City (Brazil) with a view to avoiding negative environmental impacts due the production of methane and leachates even after its closure. This paper describes the establishment of this CDM-EB-approved methodology to determine baseline emissions, project emissions and the resultant emission reductions with the application of appropriate aeration, excavation and composting practices at closed MSW landfills. A further result obtained through the application of the methodology in the landfill case study was that it would be possible to achieve an ex-ante emission reduction of 74,013 tCO2 equivalent if the proposed CDM project activity were implemented.

Civil engineering-related construction and demolition debris is an important source of waste disposed of in municipal solid waste landfills. After clay materials, gypsum waste is the second largest contributor to the residential construction waste stream. As demand for sustainable building practices grows, interest in recovering gypsum waste from construction and demolition debris is increasing, but there is a lack of standardized tests to evaluate the technical and environmental viability of this solid waste recycling process. By recycling gypsum waste, natural deposits of gypsum might be conserved and high amounts of the waste by-product could be reused in the civil construction industry. In this context, this paper investigates a physical property (i.e., resistance to axial compression), the chemical composition and the ecotoxicological potential of ceramic blocks constructed with different proportions of clay, cement and gypsum waste, and assesses the feasibility of using a minimal battery of tests to evaluate the viability of this recycling process. Consideration of the results for the resistance to axial compression tests together with production costs revealed that the best formulation was 35% of plastic clay, 35% of non-plastic clay, 10% of Portland cement and 20% of gypsum waste, which showed a mean resistance of 4.64 MPa. Energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry showed calcium and sulfur to be the main elements, while quartz, gypsum, ettringite and nacrite were the main crystalline compounds found in this formulation. Ecotoxicity tests showed that leachate from this formulation is weakly toxic toward daphnids and bacteria (EC20% = 69.0 and 75.0, respectively), while for algae and fish the leachate samples were not toxic at the EC50% level. Overall, these results show that the addition of 20% of gypsum waste to the ceramic blocks could provide a viable substitute for clay in the ceramics industry and the tests applied in this study proved to be a useful tool for the technical and environmental evaluation of this recycling process, bacterial and daphnid tests being more sensitive than algae and fish tests.