NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE ANAEROBIC DIGESTION TO MAXIMIZE RESOURCE RECOVERY AND MINIMIZE ENERGY CONSUMPTION

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is considered as an efficient and environmentally-friendly way to convert organic fractions of municipal solid waste to biogas, which can be further used for power generation. In this study, investigations of AD of different kinds of municipal solid waste, including food waste (FW), chicken manure (CM), fallen leaves (FL) and dewatered sewage sludge (DSS), were conducted to maximize methane yield and minimize energy consumption. Firstly, a comprehensive study of the effects of various mixing modes on low-solids AD performance in mono-digestion of FW and co-digestion of FW and CM was conducted. Secondly, the effects of mixing time on high-solids AD performance of FL were also studied in both batch and semi-continuous systems. Thirdly, mono-hydrothermal and co-hydrothermal pretreatment of DSS and FL were carried out to improve AD efficiency. Moreover, a new method combining hydrothermal pretreatment, struvite precipitation and AD was proposed to treat nitrogen-rich biomass.