INFLUENCE OF BIOCHAR ADDITION IN

THE ANAEROBIC DIGESTION OF

COMPLEX SUBSTRATES: SEWAGE
SLUDGE AND ORANGE PEELS

E. Judith Martineza, J. Guillermo Rosasa, Jorge Caraa, Marta Sancheza,

Cristina Marcosa, Xiomar Gomeza
a
Chemical and Environmental Bioprocess Engineering Group, Natural
Resources Institute (IRENA), University of Leon, Av. de Portugal 41, Leon
24009, Spain

KEYWORDS: Biochar, anaerobic digestion, sewage sludge, orange peel, inhibiton

Nowadays, proper waste management plays an important role in the circular economy in the
European Union (EU). According to the European commission, by 2013 the total waste
generation in EU approximately amounted 2.5 billion tons, of which 1.6 billion tons were not
reused or recycled. When wastes cannot be reused or recycled, it is desirable in
environmental and economic terms to recover its energy.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an attractive biochemical process where pollution control and
energy recovery can be achieved. Hoewever, there is still a need for optimization due to the
intrinsic differences between the organic characteristics of the wide diversity of substrates. AD
is an effective technology applied to the treatment of sewage sludge (SS) (Yuan and Zhu,
2016). This technology is usually optimized in many wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), by
applying codigestion or pretreatments strategies to improve biogas yield and balance energy
demands.
On the other hand, about 50–60% of the orange used as food products is transformed into
citrus peel waste (composed mainly by membranes, seeds and peels). The main
characteristics of citrus peel waste are low pH (around 3–4 units) and high water and organic
matter content (around 95% of total solids) which prevent their disposal in landfills in
accordance with the European regulations (Council Directive 2008/98/EC of 10th November
2008 on waste) (Ruiz and Flotats, 2014). The valorization of this waste as a co-substrate in
conventional digestion systems may represent an important source of income for the food
industry. However, the co-digestion of citrus wastes requires the previous removal of inhibitory
compounds which would redound in an increase of treatment costs. The use of low
adsorbents, like biochar may become a feasible solution for avoiding inhibitory conditions
during the digestion process and it may also increase the agronomic quality of digestates. In
addition, it should be borne in mind that biochar is frequently produced from agro-industrial
wastes, therefore the approach proposed in the present study contemplates a wholistic
valorization of wastes and the integration of biological and thermal process with the aim of

Proceedings SUM2016, Third Symposium on Urban Mining and Circular Economy, 23 - 25 May 2016
Old Monastery of St. Augustine, Bergamo, Italy
© 2016 by CISA Publisher, Italy
SUM2016
Third Symposium on Urban Mining and Circular Economy

producing higher added value products, achieving simultaneously environmental solutions and
a reduction in the carbon footprint of industrial processes.
The aim of this study was to assess the influence of the addition of biochar in the anaerobic
digestion process. The digestion will be evaluated in terms of biogas production, organic
matter removal and intermediate acids production, using as substrates sewage sludge (SS)
and orange peels (Op), which are considered as complex substrates due to their high organic
matter and organic acids content. The biochar adsorption capacity of organic acids will be
investigated at different amounts of biochar added.
The biochar was produced from vineyard residual wood. The production was carried out in
a semi-continuous electrically heated reactor. A full description of the process can be found
elsewhere (Rosas et al., 2015). Sewage and digested sludge (used as inoculum) were
obtained from the WWTP of the city of León, Spain. Orange peels were chopped using a
commercial blender until obtaining a final particle size <2mm. No pretreatment was applied to
the orange peels prior to digestion.
Adsorption experiments were carried out at different concentration of organic acids (Acetic,
Propionic, Butyric) with 10 and 30 g/L of biochar. Anaerobic digestion experiments were
performed to evaluate the biochemical methane potential of the substrates and to observe the
influence of the biochar addition in the evolution of the AD process. Methane production was
fitted to the modified Gompertz equation (Cuetos et al., 2013).
Particle size analysis was carried out for biochar characterisation and to evaluate the
specific surface area (SSA) of particles during sewage sludge digestion with and without
biochar.
Results from the absorption tests showed an increase of organic acids removal with the
increase in biochar addition. These tests showed a favourable adsorption of acetic acid. No
significant differences in organic acids removal were found with the increase of temperature.
Results of cumulative methane production of the sewage sludge and orange peels digestion
presented a sigmoid gas production tendency, which was adjusted to the modified Gompertz
model by considering the initial yield of methane produced as an additional parameter.
Anaerobic digestion of both samples (sewage sludge and orange peels) shows an extended
lag phase due the adaptation of microorganism to the complex substrates. The addition of 10
g/L of biochar resulted in the reduction of the lag phase in 35% in the SS system and 44% in
Op system and an increase in the maximum methane production for both systems (from 276
to 376 LCH4/KgSV for sludge digestion and from 93 to 204 LCH4/KgSV for orange peel
digestion).Biochar addition avoids system decay due the adsorption capacity of inhibitors and
provides a relatively high surface area for the adhesion and growth of microorganisms.

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