Study on Accelerating Energy Conversion for Industrial Anaerobic Reactors

Biogas energy, one of the renewable energy sources, has become a newly developing sector in Turkey. The existing biogas reactors in Turkey are generally continuous type reactors and use cattle manure (CM) as a substrate. According to the researches, the biogas yield of SG is considerably lower than the literature yields (50-100 ml/g volatile solids (VSSG)). Therefore, a study was conducted to increase the yield of CM. In this context, the biogas yield of CM was tested in a laboratory-scale 5L reactor at the operating temperature (35 °C) most commonly used by industrial reactors. After this reactor was determined as a control reactor, the reactor residue, which was free from soluble carbohydrates, proteins and oils and mostly containing lignocellulosic, was obtained. To this residue, 4% w/w NaOH pretreatment and trace metals nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co) were added at different concentrations (50, 100 and 150 µg/total solids CM). In this way, compared to the control reactor, a result (36 - 47%) that can stimulate hydrogenotrophic activity and further increase biogas production as a result of the addition of these metals at certain concentrations was encountered. As a results of highest biogas yield of CM for the best Ni and Co concentrations was 509.5 ± 19.9 mL/g volatile solids.