[Digestion] Digestion Digest, Vol 5, Issue 10

Mon Jan 17 07:44:09 CST 2011

Listers, Hello,

The URL for Professor Melvin S. Finstein's paper is 
www.microbemagazine.org/index.php/04-2010-home/1503-anaerobic-digestion-variants-in-the-treatment-of-solid-wastes 
<http://www.microbemagazine.org/index.php/04-2010-home/1503-anaerobic-digestion-variants-in-the-treatment-of-solid-wastes>, 
if anyone wants to follow this up. He offers a critique of the classic 
CSTR design of reactor and compares it with the IBR (Indeuced bed 
reactor), an adaptation of the UASB design.

Best wishes,

David F.

On 16/01/2011 21:37, finstein at envsci.rutgers.edu wrote:
> All,
>
> Re: CSTR at Beltsville
>
> Historically, CSTR was designed based on aerobic thinking before it was
> understood that the microbiology of aerobic and anaerobic (methanogenic)
> systems are entirely different. It is now understood that to realize
> maximal rates of treatment one must preserve the integrity of microbial
> associations rather than smash them apart - as in CSTR. I'd include here
> the URL to a brief publication summarizing a rather involved - but very
> well established - story, but believe such inclusions get weeded out by
> the list serve. You may contact me if interested.
>
> The best to All,
>
> Mel Finstein
>
>
> Melvin S. Finstein, Ph.D.
> Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science
>   Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
>
> 105 Carmel Road
> Wheeling, WV 26003
> (304) 242-0341
> Email: finstein at envsci.rutgers.edu
>
>>
>>    On 13 Jan 2011, at 17:16,<armoss at umd.edu>un wrote:
>>
>>      Charles-
>>      There's at least one small-scale digester of that size currently
>> operating in the U.S. - at the USDA Beltsville Agricultural Research
>> Center in Beltsville, MD.  The dairy's herd size is roughly 125-130,
>> with ~100 milking and producing manure at any given time (dry cattle
>> are let out to pasture).  The digester was built in 1994 and was
>> constructed as a continuous stirred-tank reactor.  I have tentative
>> plans to conduct research on this digester simultaneously with a
>> low-cost, pilot-scale digester project operating on the same
>> waste-stream that's being constructed by our lab group at the
>> University of Maryland.  I don't have intimate knowledge of the USDA
>> CSTR's history, but I can tell you what I know.
>>
>>      The digester was originally constructed for odor control as an
>> upright, cylindrical concrete tank (I'm not sure enough of the
>> designed HRT to give you information on it), and was later insulated
>> with gunnite-coated styrofoam.  It operates on mechanically
>> screw-press separated, scraped waste, and utilizes the biogas produced
>> to power a boiler that circulates hot water through a conveyance
>> system installed within the digester for heating;  a combined heat and
>> power electric generator was installed in the mid-2000s, but it has
>> never been brought online.  The digester's had a number of problems
>> come up, including repeated clogging of the supply lines (originally
>> 3-4" ID, now 6"), the break down of the screw-press separator and
>> supply pumps, and the corrosion of the boiler due to inadequate
>> scrubbing.  To be fair, many of the problems associated with the
>> digester are the result of fluctuating research interest, funds,
>> management, and the lack of an effective biogas scrubbing system, but
>> they exist all the same.  Currently, the digester is up and
>> operating... although obviously not ideally.
>>
>>      Although most of the digestion systems are covered lagoons, the AgSTAR
>> website contains a link to a Excel file detailing the digesters
>> currently registered in the EPA's system (look under "Farm Project
>> Profiles").  A few of them approximate the herd numbers you're
>> interested in.
>>
>>      As a side note, our research at the University of Maryland, together
>> with research at Ohio State and the University of Wisconsin, is
>> attempting to introduce smaller-scale, lower-cost systems in the U.S.
>> I gave a presentation in October on small-scale digestion and some of
>> the current efforts that you can find here.
>>
>>      Good luck hunting!
>>
>>      -Andy
>>
>> Andrew R. MossSustainable Agriculture Research&  Education
>> FellowUniversity of Maryland Dept. of Environmental Science and
>> Technology1445 Animal Sci./Ag. Engineering (Bldg. 142)University of
>> Maryland, College Park, MD 20742Phone:  (865) 363-5535
>
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>

-- 

********************************************************************
Dr David Fulford CEnv MEI, 15, Brandon Ave, Woodley, Reading RG5 4PU
d.j.fulford at btinternet.com <mailto:d.j.fulford at btinternet.com>, Tel: 
+44(0)118 326 9779 Mob: +44(0)7746 806401
Kingdom Bioenergy Ltd, www.kingdombio.com <http://www.kingdombio.com>, 
davidf at kindombio.com <mailto:davidf at kindombio.com>

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