Treatment and energy valorization of residual glycerol in a perfectly mixed batch reactor
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abstract
The anaerobic digestion of crude glycerol from the production of
biodiesel is an alternative that has been studied for its valorization
through the production of methane. The high organic load (1800 g
COD.L-1) of crude glycerol can cause kinetic stress, which results in
an inhibition of methanogenic microorganisms. To circumvent the
problem, an alternative is the prior use of ultrasonic energy and the
use of microorganisms such as Aspergillus niger and Escherichia
coli. Ultrasound promotes the breakdown of the cell wall and
membrane, releasing intracellular material that favors biodigestion.
In addition, such microorganisms can produce lipases capable of
degrading other impurities contained in the residual glycerol, such as
long chain fatty acids. The aim of this study is to improve the
anaerobic digestion of glycerol through physical (ultrasound) and
biological (A. niger and E. coli) pretreatments. The results indicate
that the use of ultrasound improved methane generation by 23% for a
lower concentration of glycerol (2%). There were also improvements
from the use of A. niger in 1.7% glycerol. For the concentration of
3.2% glycerol and the use of E. coli in all experiments caused
inhibition of methanogenic microorganisms.
