[Digestion] Digestion Digest, Vol 34, Issue 8

[Charlie Ramos]

Dear Edward,

 

I may be off here with my comments, so please forget me for chiming in
without looking at the email thread.  It is hard to answer your question # 3
correctly without having all the facts about your anaerobic digester system
and the waste management practices at the mill.  From my experience one of
the biggest culprits for low or not ideal biogas/methane production in POME
ADs, and a lot of time missed during the design stage, is the seasonal
fluctuation of FFB processed at the mill.   If the digester was not designed
to handle the high season POME flow rates, your biogas/methane production
will suffer.  In some cases I discovered the high season FFB processed were
as high as double as the average but digesters were designed for the
average.

 

This comes from someone that was in charge of the performance improvement
programs (increasing biogas/methane production) of around 600 ADs including
50 POME ADs located in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Colombia.  We increased the
biogas/methane production by 50% on the POME ADs but to be fair their
biogas/methane production were low before we intervened.

 

Best of luck increasing the biogas/methane production.

 

Charlie Ramos

 <blocked::http://www.biogreenengineering.com/> BioGreen Engineering LLC

 <blocked::mailto:cramos at biogreenengineering.com>
cramos at biogreenengineering.com

+1-407-459-7806 (office)

+1-407-412-0165 (cell)

 

From: Digestion [mailto:digestion-bounces at lists.bioenergylists.org] On
Behalf Of David
Sent: Monday, June 24, 2013 8:29 PM
To: For Discussion of Anaerobic Digestion
Subject: Re: [Digestion] Digestion Digest, Vol 34, Issue 8

 



Edward,

On 6/24/2013 1:08 AM, Edward Silalahi (Medan) wrote:

Dear David, [...]
 
3. Our waste are Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) with COD approximate
70.000 to 80.000 ppm, my question how could I raise the efficiency of my
bio gas production?


This is a different David.

I did a little work on POME in the Dominican Republic. As you may know, the
effluent from palm oil processing is relatively dilute, and digesters using
it are subject to wash-out, which means that the slow-growing biogas
microbes-- the methanogens-- may not have time to multiply and become
numerous before the effluent exits the digester. One way to handle this is
to provide increased surface area-- sheets or tarps or baffles or
what-have-you-- inside the digester, because the methanogens like to become
part of a biofilm. ("Biofilm" is a term which generally means an ecosystem
on a surface, where, in the case of anaerobic digestion, the community of
microbes would cooperate to digest the effluent. Because these biofilms
develop on surfaces, increased surface area inside the digester will serve
to anchor methanogens, better inoculate incoming effluent, and thereby help
prevent wash-out.)

Other than that, several different kinds of digesters can be used, but be
aware that there are often significant design differences between digesters
that are built to use such dilute inputs and digesters that are built to use
materials with far higher solids content. For example, the up-flow anaerobic
sludge blanket (UASB)-type digesters are suited to this type of input. One
reference you may be able to use to understand more about your situation is
" A Biogas Trapping Facility for Handling Palm Oil Mill Effluent", found
here <http://palmoilis.mpob.gov.my/publications/TOT/TT-491.pdf> .

Based on my brief review of your website, it is clear that your facility is
either already or is trying to become a member of RSPO, the Roundtable on
Sustainable Palm Oil. Your biogas effort should be integrated into the
documentation you supply about this.



d.

-- 

David William House

"The Complete Biogas Handbook" www.completebiogas.com
Vahid Biogas, an alternative energy consultancy www.vahidbiogas.com

"Make no search for water.       But find thirst,
And water from the very ground will burst." 

(Rumi, a Persian mystic poet, quoted in Delight of Hearts, p. 77) 

 <http://bahai.us/> http://bahai.us/

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