Implementation and process analysis of pilot scale multi-phase anaerobic fermentation and digestion of faecal sludge in Ghana

Background.  In Ghana, faecal sludge (FS) from on-site sanitation facilities is often discharged untreated into the environment, leading to significant insults to environmental and human health. Anaerobic digestion offers an attractive pathway for FS treatment with the concomitant production of ener...

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Autores principales: Shih, Justin, Fanyin-Martin, Ato, Taher, Edris, Chandran, Kartik
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: F1000 Research Limited 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5842369/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29528044
http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/gatesopenres.12754.1
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author Shih, Justin
Fanyin-Martin, Ato
Taher, Edris
Chandran, Kartik
author_facet Shih, Justin
Fanyin-Martin, Ato
Taher, Edris
Chandran, Kartik
author_sort Shih, Justin
collection PubMed
description Background.  In Ghana, faecal sludge (FS) from on-site sanitation facilities is often discharged untreated into the environment, leading to significant insults to environmental and human health. Anaerobic digestion offers an attractive pathway for FS treatment with the concomitant production of energy in the form of methane. Another innovative option includes separating digestion into acidogenesis (production of volatile fatty acids (VFA)) and methanogenesis (production of methane), which could ultimately facilitate the production of an array of biofuels and biochemicals from the VFA. This work describes the development, implementation and modeling based analysis of a novel multiphase anaerobic fermentation-digestion process aimed at FS treatment in Kumasi, Ghana.  Methods.  A pilot-scale anaerobic fermentation process was implemented at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly’s Oti Sanitary Landfill Site at Adanse Dompoase.  The process consisted of six 10 m (3) reactors in series, which were inoculated with bovine rumen and fed with fecal sludge obtained from public toilets.  The performance of the fermentation process was characterized in terms of both aqueous and gaseous variables representing the conversion of influent organic carbon to VFA as well as CH (4).  Using the operating data, the first-ever process model for FS fermentation and digestion was developed and calibrated, based on the activated sludge model framework. Results and Conclusions.  This work represents one of the first systematic efforts at integrated FS characterization and process modeling to enable anaerobic fermentation and digestion of FS. It is shown that owing to pre-fermentation of FS in public septage holding tanks, one could employ significantly smaller digesters (lower capital costs) or increased loading capabilities for FS conversion to biogas or VFA. Further, using the first-ever calibrated process model for FS fermentation and digestion presented herein, we expect improved and more mechanistically informed development and application of different process designs and configurations for global FS management practice.
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spelling pubmed-58423692018-03-08 Implementation and process analysis of pilot scale multi-phase anaerobic fermentation and digestion of faecal sludge in Ghana Shih, Justin Fanyin-Martin, Ato Taher, Edris Chandran, Kartik Gates Open Res Research Article Background.  In Ghana, faecal sludge (FS) from on-site sanitation facilities is often discharged untreated into the environment, leading to significant insults to environmental and human health. Anaerobic digestion offers an attractive pathway for FS treatment with the concomitant production of energy in the form of methane. Another innovative option includes separating digestion into acidogenesis (production of volatile fatty acids (VFA)) and methanogenesis (production of methane), which could ultimately facilitate the production of an array of biofuels and biochemicals from the VFA. This work describes the development, implementation and modeling based analysis of a novel multiphase anaerobic fermentation-digestion process aimed at FS treatment in Kumasi, Ghana.  Methods.  A pilot-scale anaerobic fermentation process was implemented at the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly’s Oti Sanitary Landfill Site at Adanse Dompoase.  The process consisted of six 10 m (3) reactors in series, which were inoculated with bovine rumen and fed with fecal sludge obtained from public toilets.  The performance of the fermentation process was characterized in terms of both aqueous and gaseous variables representing the conversion of influent organic carbon to VFA as well as CH (4).  Using the operating data, the first-ever process model for FS fermentation and digestion was developed and calibrated, based on the activated sludge model framework. Results and Conclusions.  This work represents one of the first systematic efforts at integrated FS characterization and process modeling to enable anaerobic fermentation and digestion of FS. It is shown that owing to pre-fermentation of FS in public septage holding tanks, one could employ significantly smaller digesters (lower capital costs) or increased loading capabilities for FS conversion to biogas or VFA. Further, using the first-ever calibrated process model for FS fermentation and digestion presented herein, we expect improved and more mechanistically informed development and application of different process designs and configurations for global FS management practice. F1000 Research Limited 2017-11-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5842369/ /pubmed/29528044 http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/gatesopenres.12754.1 Text en Copyright: © 2017 Shih J et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Shih, Justin
Fanyin-Martin, Ato
Taher, Edris
Chandran, Kartik
Implementation and process analysis of pilot scale multi-phase anaerobic fermentation and digestion of faecal sludge in Ghana
title Implementation and process analysis of pilot scale multi-phase anaerobic fermentation and digestion of faecal sludge in Ghana
title_full Implementation and process analysis of pilot scale multi-phase anaerobic fermentation and digestion of faecal sludge in Ghana
title_fullStr Implementation and process analysis of pilot scale multi-phase anaerobic fermentation and digestion of faecal sludge in Ghana
title_full_unstemmed Implementation and process analysis of pilot scale multi-phase anaerobic fermentation and digestion of faecal sludge in Ghana
title_short Implementation and process analysis of pilot scale multi-phase anaerobic fermentation and digestion of faecal sludge in Ghana
title_sort implementation and process analysis of pilot scale multi-phase anaerobic fermentation and digestion of faecal sludge in ghana
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5842369/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29528044
http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/gatesopenres.12754.1
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