Water Science & Technology—WST Vol 57 No 11 pp 1735–1741 © IWA Publishing 2008 doi:10.2166/wst.2008.091

Anaerobic digestion of gelatinous water at laboratory and pilot scale and nitrogen inhibition

D. Martinez-Sosa, Y. Rafrafi, M. Torrijos, N. Bernet, G. Buitron, F. Bosque and J. P. Delgenès

The anaerobic digestion of the liquid residue (gelatinous water) coming from the production of fat from animal residue, was studied at laboratory and pilot scale. Biodegradability (>98%) and biogas potential (675 mL of biogas/g of COD_applied) of this wastewater are very high. However, due to the high content on nitrogen, an inhibition of the anaerobic activity was observed for quite low concentrations of N‐NH₃. Dilution of the wastewater and pH regulation in the reactor around 7.3 are the 2 solutions which were investigated to overcome the nitrogen inhibition at industrial scale. These two solutions were validated at laboratory scale in an anaerobic SBR and then onsite at pilot scale in a continuous reactor. A stable anaerobic digestion was observed in both reactors showing that no nitrogen inhibition was obtained when N‐NH₃ concentration in the reactor was kept low.

Keywords: ammonia inhibition; anaerobic digestion; gelatinous water; nitrogen

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