Design of Environmental Processes Laboratory, School of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Chania, 73100, Greece; Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA.
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA; Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, China.
J Environ Manage. 2018 Jun 15;216:96-104. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.07.050. Epub 2017 Aug 31.
Municipal solid waste (MSW) contains a large fraction of biodegradable organic materials. When disposed in landfills, these materials can cause adverse environmental impact due to gaseous emissions and leachate generation. This study was performed with an aim of effectively separating the biodegradable materials from a Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) facility and treating them in well-controlled anaerobic digesters for biogas production. The rotary drum reactor (RDR) process (a sub-process of the MBT facilities studied in the present work) was evaluated as an MSW pretreatment technology for separating and preparing the biodegradable materials in MSW to be used as feedstock for anaerobic digestion. The RDR processes used in six commercial MSW treatment plants located in the USA were surveyed and sampled. The samples of the biodegradable materials produced by the RDR process were analyzed for chemical and physical characteristics as well as anaerobically digested in the laboratory using batch reactors under thermophilic conditions. The moisture content, TS, VS and C/N of the samples varied between 64.7 and 44.4%, 55.6 to 35.3%, 27.0 to 41.3% and 24.5 to 42.7, respectively. The biogas yield was measured to be between 533.0 and 675.6 mL gVS after 20 days of digestion. Approximately 90% of the biogas was produced during the first 13 days. The average methane content of the biogas was between 58.0 and 59.9%. The results indicated that the biodegradable materials separated from MSW using the RDR processes could be used as an excellent feedstock for anaerobic digestion. The digester residues may be further processed for compost production or further energy recovery by using thermal conversion processes such as combustion or gasification.
城市固体废物（MSW）含有大量可生物降解的有机物质。当这些材料被填埋时，由于气体排放和渗滤液的产生，可能会对环境造成不利影响。本研究旨在从机械生物处理（MBT）设施中有效地分离可生物降解的材料，并在控制良好的厌氧消化器中处理这些材料，以生产沼气。旋转滚筒反应器（RDR）工艺（本研究中所研究的 MBT 设施的子过程）被评估为一种 MSW 预处理技术，用于分离和制备 MSW 中的可生物降解材料，用作厌氧消化的原料。调查并采样了美国六个商业 MSW 处理厂使用的 RDR 工艺。对 RDR 工艺生产的可生物降解材料样品进行了化学和物理特性分析，并在实验室中使用分批式反应器在高温条件下进行厌氧消化。样品的水分含量、TS、VS 和 C/N 分别在 64.7%至 44.4%、55.6%至 35.3%、27.0%至 41.3%和 24.5%至 42.7%之间变化。在消化 20 天后，沼气产量测量值在 533.0 至 675.6 mL gVS 之间。大约 90%的沼气在最初的 13 天内产生。沼气的平均甲烷含量在 58.0%至 59.9%之间。结果表明，使用 RDR 工艺从 MSW 中分离出的可生物降解材料可用作厌氧消化的极好原料。消化器残渣可以通过燃烧或气化等热转化工艺进一步加工为堆肥或进一步回收能源。
