Producing Methane in a Mesophilic and Thermophilic AnSBBR from the Treatment of an Effluent from Soy Molasses Hydrogen Production.

• Grant number: 22/14859-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: March 01, 2023
• End date: February 29, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Sanitary Engineering - Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment
• Principal Investigator: Suzana Maria Ratusznei
• Grantee: Ariane Moreira Ozú
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia Mauá (EEM). Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia. São Caetano do Sul , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The increasing generation of agro-industrial waste and the high cost of its disposal cause economic and environmental problems. However, the proper use of these resources can result in new products with added value. In this sense, soy molasses, generated in the production of concentrated soy proteins, can be used to obtain bioenergy through anaerobic digestion.In this process, different metabolic routes can be favored depending on the operational conditions. By favoring the routes that imply the production of hydrogen from soy molasses, there will be a need to favor, in the sequence, the routes of production of other products with added value such as methane, depending on the organic matter content of the effluent from this process.Anaerobic bioreactors operated in sequencing batches with immobilized biomass (AnSBBR) are suitable for carrying out the anaerobic digestion of effluents and, therefore, have been studied by the group from the Mauá Engineering School of the Mauá Institute of Technology (EEM/IMT), in which projects focus on studying the optimization of conventional bioreactors and of new configuration proposals to render full-scale systems feasible.Within the scope of the study of bioenergy production, this project evaluates the use of AnSBBR with recirculation of the liquid phase in the treatment of effluent from an acidogenic reactor. The effluent from the acidogenic hydrogen production reactor will be from the treatment of soybean molasses and will contain intermediate compounds of anaerobic metabolism.An assessment will be performed of the biogas productivity (methane and carbon dioxide) and of the stability and efficiency of the reactor subjected to increased organic load (due to the increase in influent concentration) at two temperature ranges: mesophilic (30°C) and thermophilic (55°C).