Biogas upgrading from vinasse digesters: a comparison between an anoxic biotrickling filter and an algal-bacterial photobioreactor

BACKGROUND Biological technologies for biogas upgrading such as anoxic biotrickling filters (BTF) and algal–bacterial photobioreactors (PBR) constitute a cost-effective, environmentally friendly alternative to conventional physical–chemical methods. Nonetheless, there is a lack of studies comparing their performance when treating real biogas. RESULTS A H2S removal efficiency >98% was consistently recorded in both systems, with elimination capacities up to 26 and 12.4 g S-H2S m−3 h−1 in the BTF and PBR, respectively, at empty bed residence times (EBRTs) of ∼ 30 min. Both bioreactors demonstrated a high robustness towards fluctuations in biogas composition and flowrate, maintaining nearly complete desulfurization despite the variations in sulfur load and EBRT. The BTF also showed an immediate recovery from a 15 days operational shut-down, and the ability to utilize the nutrients from nitrate-supplemented digestate during biogas desulfurization. In addition, the PBR supported an average CO2 removal of 23.0 ± 11.8%, increasing to 62% at higher pH of 8.1, with a carbon fixation rate of 285 mg CO2 L−1 d−1. CONCLUSIONS The BTF was confirmed as a robust technology for the desulfurization of real biogas, even when supplemented with effluent from the digester. High H2S removal was also achieved in the PBR, the CO2 fixation capacity of microalgae enhancing biogas purification. © 2015 Society of Chemical Industry

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  Journal of Chemical Technology & Biotechnology

• Publication date

  2016-09-01

• Fields of study

  Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1002/JCTB.4843
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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