Research
| Title： | Free ammonia pretreatment improves anaerobic methane generation from algae |
|---|---|
| First author： | Wang, Qilin; Sun, Jing; Liu, Sitong; Gao, Li; Zhou, Xu; Wang, Dongbo; Song, Kang; Nghiem, Long D. |
| Journal： | WATER RESEARCH |
| Years： | 2019 |
| DOI： | 10.1016/j.watres.2019.06.065 |
| Abstract： | Anaerobic methane generation from algae is hindered by the slow and poor algae biodegradability. A novel free ammonia (NH3 i.e. FA) pretreatment technology was proposed in this work to enhance anaerobic methane generation from algae cultivated using a real secondary effluent. The algae solubilisation was 0.05-0.06 g SCOD/g TCOD (SCOD: soluble chemical oxygen demand; TCOD: total chemical oxygen demand) following FA pretreatment of 240-530 mg NH3-N/L for 24 h, whereas the solubilisation was only 0.01 g SCOD/g TCOD for the untreated algae. This indicates that FA pretreatment at 240-530 mg NH3-N/L could substantially enhance algae solubilisation. Biochemical methane potential tests revealed that FA pretreatment on algae at 240-530 mg NH3-N/L is able to significantly enhance anaerobic methane generation. The hydrolysis rate (k) and biochemical methane potential (P-0) of algae increased from 0.21 d(-1) and 132 L CH4/kg TCOD to 0.33-0.50 d(-1) and 140-154 L CH4/kg TCOD, respectively, after the algae was pretreated by FA at 240-530 mg NH3-N/L. Further analysis indicated that FA pretreatment improved k of both quickly and slowly biodegradable substrates, and also increased P-0 of the slowly biodegradable substrate although it negatively affected P0 of the quickly biodegradable substrate. This FA technology is a closed-loop technology. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |
