Recovery of methane from anaerobic process effluent using poly-di-methyl-siloxane membrane contactors
TL;DR: Results from this study demonstrate that dissolved methane recovery could increase net electrical production from low temperature anaerobic processes by ca.
About: This article is published in Water Science and Technology.The article was published on 2012-02-01. It has received 102 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Enhanced coal bed methane recovery & Methane.
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TL;DR: Ability to recover other elements such as nitrogen and potassium, as well as enhance favourability on concentrated wastewaters may enhance the desirability of partitioning in the longer term.
319 citations
TL;DR: For high strength domestic wastewater treatment, AnMBR recovered 15% more net energy than HRAS+AD, and the environmental emissions gap between the two systems was reduced, and future developments of An MBR technology in low energy fouling control, increased flux, and management of effluent methane emissions would make AnMBr competitive with HRAS-AD.
Abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate emerging anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) technology in comparison with conventional wastewater energy recovery technologies. Wastewater treatment process modeling and systems analyses were combined to evaluate the conditions under which AnMBR may produce more net energy and have lower life cycle environmental emissions than high rate activated sludge with anaerobic digestion (HRAS+AD), conventional activated sludge with anaerobic digestion (CAS+AD), and an aerobic membrane bioreactor with anaerobic digestion (AeMBR+AD). For medium strength domestic wastewater treatment under baseline assumptions at 15 °C, AnMBR recovered 49% more energy as biogas than HRAS+AD, the most energy positive conventional technology considered, but had significantly higher energy demands and environmental emissions. Global warming impacts associated with AnMBR were largely due to emissions of effluent dissolved methane. For high strength domestic wastewater treatment, AnMBR recove...
225 citations
TL;DR: The scope of application of anaerobic digestion is expanding, due to availability of new technologies, and the emerging drivers of energy and nutrient conservation and recovery, namely wastewater nutrient and energy recovery, and generation of value added chemicals through mixed culture biotechnology.
183 citations
TL;DR: A model for estimating energy consumption associated with membrane-based dissolved methane recovery predicts that recovered dissolved and headspace methane may provide all the energy required for operation of an anaerobic system treating DWW at psychrophilic temperatures.
183 citations
TL;DR: A literature review focusing on current design criteria and post-treatment options, alongside discussing the centralized and decentralized approach is presented and discussed in this article, where the current limitations and constraints regarding temperature, nutrients, pathogen removal, odour nuisance, operational constrictions and methane emissions are also discussed.
Abstract: The interest in high-rate anaerobic (pre-)treatment of sewage using UASB reactors is steadily growing since its introduction in the mid-1980s. Today there are hundreds of full-scale plants in operation in various parts of the tropical world, notably in Latin America and India. The main advantage of UASB technology is the very low or even zero energy demand, leading to an up to tenfold drop in operational costs compared to activated sludge. This paper presents a literature review focussing on current design criteria and post-treatment options, alongside discussing the centralized and decentralized approach. The current limitations and constraints regarding temperature, nutrients, pathogen removal, odour nuisance, operational constrictions and methane emissions are also presented and discussed. Further, recent challenges in relation to energy recovery from biogas, sludge and scum are discussed, alongside with advances related to recovery of dissolved methane and sludge management. Finally, the paper provides some outlooks for upcoming developments.
165 citations
Cites background from "Recovery of methane from anaerobic ..."
...Some alternatives to reduce the dissolved methane content in the effluent of anaerobic reactors have been proposed, such as micro-aeration using biogas (Hartley and Lant 2006) and degasifying membranes (Cookney et al. 2010), but none of them have yet proved to be fully viable or effective....
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References
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TL;DR: The feasibility of sewage treatment by an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor was studied using actual sewage at a fixed hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 4.7 h, and at temperatures in the range of 25-13°C, for six months.
164 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the influence of coupling effects on permeability properties in polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) at temperatures from −20 to 50°C.
140 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that methane supersaturation is likely to be significant and that methane losses in the effluent are likely to have been greater than previously predicted, and that anaerobic sewage treatment can genuinely provide energy recovery.
Abstract: The aim of this work was to demonstrate at pilot scale a high level of energy recovery from sewage utilising a primary Anaerobic Migrating Bed Reactor (AMBR) operating at ambient temperature to convert COD to methane. The focus is the reduction in non-renewable CO2 emissions resulting from reduced energy requirements for sewage treatment. A pilot AMBR was operated on screened sewage over the period June 2003 to September 2004. The study was divided into two experimental phases. In Phase 1 the process operated at a feed rate of 10 L/h (HRT 50 h), SRT 63 days, average temperature 28 degrees C and mixing time fraction 0.05. In Phase 2 the operating parameters were 20 L/h, 26 days, 16 degrees C and 0.025. Methane production was 66% of total sewage COD in Phase 1 and 23% in Phase 2. Gas mixing of the reactor provided micro-aeration which suppressed sulphide production. Intermittent gas mixing at a useful power input of 6 W/m(3) provided satisfactory process performance in both phases. Energy consumption for mixing was about 1.5% of the energy conversion to methane in both operating phases. Comparative analysis with previously published data confirmed that methane supersaturation resulted in significant losses of methane in the effluent of anaerobic treatment systems. No cases have been reported where methane was considered to be supersaturated in the effluent. We have shown that methane supersaturation is likely to be significant and that methane losses in the effluent are likely to have been greater than previously predicted. Dissolved methane concentrations were measured at up to 2.2 times the saturation concentration relative to the mixing gas composition. However, this study has also demonstrated that despite methane supersaturation occurring, microaeration can result in significantly lower losses of methane in the effluent (< 11% in this study), and has demonstrated that anaerobic sewage treatment can genuinely provide energy recovery. The goal of demonstrating a high level of energy recovery in an ambient anaerobic bioreactor was achieved. An AMBR operating at ambient temperature can achieve up to 70% conversion of sewage COD to methane, depending on SRT and temperature. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
97 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the treatment of raw domestic sewage at ambient temperatures in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor with a volume of 120 l and a height of 1.92 m was studied.
95 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the feasibility of anaerobic treatment of a low-strength (500 mg-COD/l) synthetic wastewater using a semi-pilot-scale upflow upflow sludge blanket (UASB) reactor was described.
90 citations