ANAEROBIC TREATMENT OF MSW

2. Basic facts about anaerobic digestion:

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a bacterial fermentation process that operates without
free oxygen and results in a biogas containing mostly methane and carbon
dioxide. It occurs naturally in anaerobic niches such as marshes, sediments,
wetlands, and the digestive tracts of ruminants and certain species of insects. AD
is also the principal decomposition process occurring in landfills.
AD systems are employed in many wastewater treatment facilities for sludge
degradation and stabilization, and are used in engineered anaerobic digesters to
treat high-strength industrial and food processing wastewaters prior to discharge.
There are also many instances of AD applied at animal feeding operations and
dairies to mitigate some of the impacts of manure and for energy production.

3. Mechanism of anaerobic treatment: (conventional)

4. Anaerobic waste treatment offers the following advantages:

 In addition to dry bio-waste, moist constituents like table scraps and waste
from food processing and farming also can be handled.
 The biogas yield, i.e., its energy potential, can be used for generating
electricity, heat and refrigeration.
 The fermented substrate can be recycled in liquid or dry condition.
 The requisite equipment takes up relatively little space.
 The closed-cycle mode of operation enables extensive reduction of odors, so
such facilities can be located closer to built-up areas, thus decreasing the cost
of transportation.
 Anaerobic waste treatment reduces the quantities to be handled by – and
 The emissions to be expected from – sanitary landfills and refuse incineration
plants.
Thanks to low levels of odor nuisance, a broad spectrum of substrates and a positive
energy balance, anaerobic fermentation has become an established component of the
waste market, at least in Germany; the technology gap in favor of composting, resulting
from its earlier development and application, has closed, and the number of anaerobic
waste treatment facilities is growing steadily.

5. It does, however, have certain drawbacks:

• The technology is in most cases still relatively complicated.
• Consequently, the cost of construction and operation differs widely and can be
quite high, depending on the employed mode of construction.
• Despite revenues from the produced energy and fertilizer, it is in most cases
Still necessary to levy waste disposal fees, because treating the waste costs
between 50 and 200 DM/t.
• The technology is relatively young and therefore still widely unknown in
emerging countries.
• The efficient use and handling of energy and compost and other byproducts and
their quality control demands appropriate know-how.

6. Here the mode of treatment is not completely anaerobic/aerobic and hence may be
termed as anoxic. This treatment would be very close to that which happens in
wastewater treatment. The aerobes will grow at the top most surface to degrade the
substances and hence there is very less heat generation and aerobic degradation. But
the aerobes at the bottom will mostly be functional in the beginning stages when
oxygen is available for survival and assist in preparing the waste for further
degradation. Once the oxygen has depleted below usable limits the anaerobes start
their action and the degradation starts.
The degradation here is again ‘fermentation’ and the fermentation products are
found. The reduction will be enhanced since the organic matter content is more
concentrated and readily available.
The microbes are inherently carried by the solid waste which can degrade the solid
after a given time. These externally added microbes act like seeding to the dump
and they both grow in mutualism towards faster degradation. The microbes need
food for survival and hence they can reach out to far ends of the system using
leachate as their carrier material (leachate produced from water that will be
sprinkled to maintain moisture).

7. Comparison of aerobic and anaerobic biological waste (water) treatment.

Aerobic digestion Anaerobic digestion

Start-up Short start-up period.
Process • Integrated nitrogen and
phosphorus removal possible.
• Production of high excess sludge
quantities.
• Large reactor volume necessary.
• High nutrient requirements.
Long start-up period.
• No significant nitrogen or
phosphorus removal, nutrients
removal done via post treatment.
• Production of very little excess
sludge (5-20%).
• Small reactor volume can be
 used.
• Low nutrient requirements.
Carbon 50-60% incorporated into CO2; 95% converted to biogas; 5%
Balance 40-50% incorporated into biomass. incorporated into microbial
biomass.
Energy 60% of available energy is used in 90% retained as CH4, 3-5% is lost
Balance new biomass; 40% lost as process as heat, and 5-7% is used in new
heat. biomass formation.
Residuals • Excess sludge production. • Biogas, nitrogen mineralised to
• No need for post-treatment. ammonia.
• Post-treatment required for
removal of remaining organic
matter and malodorous
compounds.
Costs • Low investment costs. • Often moderate investment costs.
• High operating costs for aeration, • Low operating costs due to low
additional nutrient and sludge power consumption and additional
removal, and maintenance. nutrients hardly required.
State of Established technology. Still under development for
Development specific applications.

8. The advantages of the two-stage system over the one-stage system when treating
the same waste(water).
• Two-stage systems can treat three times the organic loading of a one-stage process, and
therefore have shorter hydraulic retention time for rapidly degradable waste. The
volumetric capacity of the two-stage system is theoretically higher than that of a single-
stage system.
• Significantly higher biomass conversion efficiency and higher COD removal efficiency.
• Higher methane concentration (80-85%) in the biogas produced because the specific
activity of methanogens is increased.
• Better process reliability, resilience and stability, especially with variable waste
conditions and readily degradable waste, which causes unstable performance in one-stage
systems.
• Physical separation of the acidogenic and methanogenic phases allows maintenance of
appropriate densities of the acid- and methane-producing microbes enabling
maximisation of their rates.
• The acid phase and methane phase can be started much more easily and quickly than in
conventional, single-stage digesters.
• The acidification reactor can serve as a buffer system when the composition of the
wastewater is variable and can help in the removal of compounds toxic to the
methanogens.
• Based on information from full-scale operating systems, two-stage systems produce less
and better quality Class A biosolids. This is the main reason for using the two-stage
process.
• Foaming is limited to, at worst, the start-up in all two-phase systems. Foaming problems
can be controlled by keeping the feed solids above 5% TS, which is an advantage in
itself.

DESLUDGED SLUDGE FROM SEPTIC TANK

The C/N ratio of any solid waste must have a value of 25-30 __ for optimum functioning
but the MSW found in India has over 80 units. Hence to reduce we can add sludge (C/N
ratio 5-7) to bring down the concentration and in turn increase the efficiency as well as
the quantity of digested sludge worth for reuse. This has been mentioned in __ so must be
very well within the acceptable standards.