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The anaerobic digestion of the so-called grey or residual waste fraction coming from MSW is becoming more and more important. Anaerobic digestion of municipal solid waste developed very rapidly in Europe during the mid-nineties but was mainly geared to the treatment of biowaste, due to the fact that source separate collection of the biowaste fraction was being implemented in many countries. The purpose of the source separation at the household level was to be able to achieve a high-quality compost with a very low concentration in heavy metals. In the last 5 years however, the application of anaerobic digestion on residual waste has increased dramatically. In 1998, only 13% of the digestion capacity in Europe was installed for the treatment of residual waste but by 2006, more than 52% of the digestion capacity for MSW was designed to treat residual waste. Current construction of anaerobic digestion plants for MSW is about 2/3 for residual waste and 1/3 for source separated biowaste. The most difficult material to treat is the residual waste that is produced after the separate collection of both recyclables as well as the organics. This means that the easily digestible materials are removed and residual waste with a large degree of impurities, such as glass, stones and plastics, is left over. The purpose of the anaerobic digestion of this residual waste is then mostly to produce an inert stabilized material that can be landfilled in accordance to the German regulations. The oldest digestion plant treating residual waste after separate collection of the biowaste is located in Bassum, Germany, utilizing the Dranco technology.
which one part of fresh organics is intensively mixed with around six to eight parts of digestate. Iron chloride and process water are added as needed. A tonnage of 50 to 100 ton per week of sludge is added to the mixture as well, together with the steam necessary to raise the temperature to around 50 C in order to ob tain thermophilic operating conditions. The mixture is pumped by means of a piston pump to the top of the digester, where the mixture starts to ferment immediately.
Industrial waste
SHREDDER
SHREDDER
Biogas
GAS STORAGE
GAS COOLING
MAGNET
Fraction < 60 mm
2.260 m Landfill
Heavy parts
Steam
STEAM GENERATOR
NON-FERROUS SEPARATOR
BALLISTIC SEPARATOR
Hard materials
DOSING UNIT
FEEDING PUMP
GAS ENGINE
To intermediate storage
SHREDDER
Process water
Existing flare
INCINERATION PLANT
MIXING UNIT
RTO
INTENSIVE COMPOSTING
COMPOSTING
Landfill
Figure 1: Flow sheet partial stream Dranco digestion plant in Pohlsche Heide, Germany
The digester has a volume of 2260 m, with a total height of 25m. The residence time in the digester is 21 days on average. The biogas produced is extracted from the top of the digester, while the digesting material moves from top to bottom through the digester by means of gravity only. The digestion tank is not mixed and does not contain any moving devices. The digested material is extracted from the conical bottom of the digester by means of screws and is either recycled to the mixing-pumping unit for the addition of fresh feedstock into the digester, or is removed from the process and sent to a second mixing unit prior to the composting phase. Bypassed non-digested organics are mixed with digestate in a ratio of 1:2 and subjected to an intensive composting phase in heated tunnels. After the intensive composting for 2 to 3 days, the material is moved to non-heated tunnels and is further stabilized and dried. The final end product is sufficiently stabile to meet the standards for inert landfilling, as specified by German law.
The biogas produced is collected at the top of the digester and stored for a brief time in a gas storage. The biogas is further cooled down and pushed through an activated carbon scrubber, in order to remove siloxanes. The cleaned biogas is utilized either for the production of steam, for the production of electricity in gasengines or for the RTO-unit (Regenerative Thermal Oxidation) for the burning of the most polluted process air (see Figure 2).
Fresh air
Fresh air
BIOFILTER
Fresh air
RTO
Biogas
Fresh air
Ammonium sulphate
Table 1: Composition of organics after pretreatment On fresh weight Dry matter on fresh weight Inerts 9,7 % 94 % Plastics 4,6 % 74 % Textiles 1% 57 % Rest 84,7 % 54 %
Figures 3, 4 and 5 show an overview of the results obtained during the weeks 34 through 43. Figure 3 shows the tonnage fed during each week. During week 39, the digester was fed during 3 days only, due to maintenance works in the pretreatment. The biogas yield per ton fluctuated only very slightly during this 10-week period. Figure 4 shows the weekly tonnage of organic waste and sludge. The sludge represented on average about 10% of the feed, but rose to 25% during the week that organics were only pretreated during 3 days. Figure 5 shows the biogas production per week in Nm, which averaged around 55.000 Nm and a specific productivity of 4,5 Nm per Nm of active reactor volume and per day.
Tons
Figure 3
500
125
400
100
Tons of sludge
300
75
200
50
100
25
0 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43
Week (2006) Input municipal solid waste in reactor Input sludge in reactor
Figure 4
Nm/mreactor.day
Nm/Week
4 3 2 1 0
Figure 5
Table 2: Stability measurements Stability Standard < 35 < 18 < 300 < 5,0 < 20,0 < 6000 Range of medians 25 28 69 71 12 17 150 - 230 1,8 2,6 3,7 3,9 4850 - 4900 Average of medians 26,5 70 14,4 185 2,2 3,8 4875
Water content Ash content TOC in dry residue TOC in eluate Respirometry Gas Production Calorific Value
Conclusions
The partial anaerobic digestion of residual MSW significantly reduces investment as well as operating costs for the subsequent aerobic composting and stabilization phase. At the same time, the benefits of anaerobic digestion, such as energy production, reduction of odors and space requirements are obtained for two thirds of the organics produced in the pretreatment. By using a dry fermentation system, which can produce a digestate with a total solids concentration of more than 35%, the need for dewatering together with the treatment of excess wastewater is completely omitted.
References
1. De Baere L. and Boelens J. (1999) The treatment of grey and mixed solid waste by means of anaerobic digestion : future developments. In: presentations (volume II) of Il International symposium on anaerobic digestion of solid waste, Barcelona, Spain. 2. De Baere L. (2005) Will anaerobic digestion of solid waste survive in the future? In: Water Science & Technology Vol. 53, N 8 pp 187 194