Anaerobic Digestion of Slaughterhouse Solid Waste for the Optimization of Biogas Production

Medina-Herrera, M.; Rodríguez-García, A.; Montoya-Herrera, L.; Cárdenas-Mijangos, J.; Godínez-Mora-Tovar, L.A.; Bustos-Bustos, E.; Rodríguez-Valadez, F.J.; Manríquez-Rocha, J.

doi:10.22059/ijer.2014.741

Anaerobic Digestion of Slaughterhouse Solid Waste for the Optimization of Biogas Production

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

M. Medina-Herrera

A. Rodríguez-García

L. Montoya-Herrera

J. Cárdenas-Mijangos

L.A. Godínez-Mora-Tovar

E. Bustos-Bustos

F.J. Rodríguez-Valadez

J. Manríquez-Rocha

Environmental Electrochemistry, CIDETEQ, S. C., P.O. Box 064, C.P. 76703. Parque Tecnológico Querétaro S/N, Sanfandila, Pedro Escobedo, Querétaro, México

10.22059/ijer.2014.741

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion is a feasible technology to stabilize the solid waste generated in
slaughterhouses obtaining significant quantities of biogas, considered as a clean and renewable fuel. This is
why it is important to optimize the digestion process in order to eliminate organic matter and maximize the
production of biogas. In this work, a system was developed for treating slaughterhouse solid waste while
maximizing the production of biogas. This system is based on the separation of the acidogenic and the
methanogenic phases of anaerobic digestion. The study was conducted in two phases. First, the effect of
thermal pretreatment of the substrate and inoculation of the bioreactor with granular sludge were evaluated. In this phase, two variables were analyzed: the pretreatment temperature and whether or not inoculum was
added. The results showed that the greatest decrease of total chemical oxygen demand (57%) and the highest biogas production (753 mL) were obtained from the inoculated sample pre-treated at 60 °C. In the second phase of the study, we analyzed the effect of running the anaerobic digestion stages, fermentation and digestion, in two separated steps. We found that the removal of organic matter is the same (56%) but more biogas (0.376 m3/m3 reactor*day) was produced in a two-step process.

Keywords

biogas

Slaughterhouse

Anaerobic digestion

pretreatment

Inoculum