Influence of inoculum to substrate ratio on methane production in Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) tests of sugarcane distillery waste water

Hélène Caillet (1) , Edouard Lebon (1) , Esther Akinlabi (2) , Daniel Madyira (2) , Laetitia Adelard (1)

1 PIMENT - Physique et Ingénierie Mathématique pour l'Énergie, l'environnemeNt et le bâtimenT
2 Department of Mechanical Engineering Science, University of Johannesburg

The activated sludges and the sugarcane distillery wastewater (vinasse) are two different types of liquid wastes generated throughout the domestic wastewater treatment and sugarcane molasses fermentation and distillation respectively. In Reunion Island, sludge is currently discarded in landfills. Regarding the vinasse, a part of the production is treated by anaerobic digestion process. However, the remaining part is diluted then discharged into the sea 900 m of the coast. In this study, the mesophilic biochemical methane potential (BMP) test, with different inoculum to substrate (I/S) ratios, are presented in this paper as well as the methane production and kinetic results. The BMP is modelled by both the first order linear regression and the modified Gompertz model. In a future study, we will propose an alternative solution in order to treat both wastes simultaneously while producing energy with the co-digestion of the vinasse and the activated sludges in semi-industrial scale.

Mots clés: anaerobic digestion; biochemical potential test; I/S ratio; modified Gompertz model; sugarcane vinasse

Domaines: Physique [physics]

Hélène Caillet, Edouard Lebon, Esther Akinlabi, Daniel Madyira, Laetitia Adelard. Influence of inoculum to substrate ratio on methane production in Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) tests of sugarcane distillery waste water. International Conference on Sustainable Materials Processing and Manufacturing, Mar 2019, Sun City, South Africa. pp.8 - 10. ⟨hal-02013820⟩