Recovery of unstable digestion of vegetable waste by adding trace elements using the bicarbonate alkalinity to total alkalinity ratio as an early warning indicator.

Vegetable waste (VW) is highly perishable and susceptible to acidification during anaerobic digestion, which inhibits biogas production. Effective process monitoring, diagnosis and control are necessary to maintain stable anaerobic digestion at a high organic loading rate (OLR). Continuous mesophilic digestion was conducted at OLRs of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0 g volatile solids (VS)/(L d) with effluent recirculation (ER) in a reactor with total volume of 70 L. The effectiveness of three early warning indicators was validated. The ability of trace elements (TEs) (Fe, Co and Ni) to recover unstable VW digestion systems was evaluated. The results showed that the ratio of bicarbonate alkalinity (BA) to total alkalinity (TA) was a more effective warning indicator than the ratios of methane (CH) to carbon dioxide and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) to TA. When the ratio of BA/TA was lower than 0.9, the digestion system tended to be unstable. ER maintained a stable OLR of 1.5 g VS/(L d). The addition of TEs achieved a maximum stable OLR of 3.5 g VS/(L d) with an average volumetric biogas production rate of 1.91 L/(L d). Severe VFAs accumulation and unrecoverable instability occurred at an OLR of 4.0 g VS/(L d). The supplementation of ammonium bicarbonate was not useful for the recovery of the unstable system when the OLR was greater than 3.5 g VS/(L d) for the digestion of VW. The specific methane production was approximately 340 L/kg VS during the stable period with a digestion efficiency of 85%.