Biogas Production by Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Dairy Wastewater with the Crude Glycerol from Slaughterhouse Sludge Cake Transesterification

SIMPLE SUMMARY: In our previous study, slaughterhouse sludge cake was trans-esterified to produce biofuel and some organic waste, i.e., crude glycerol. The crude glycerol was evaluated for feasibility of using crude glycerol as the feedstock to produce biofuel by anaerobic co-digestion with dairy cattle wastewater. Addition of crude glycerol significantly increased production efficiency of biogas but decreased the removal efficiency of total solids and volatile solids with increased crude glycerol volume. The results showed that the slaughterhouse sludge cake is a feasible feedstock for producing biodiesel and the waste, crude glycerol, can promote biogas production. ABSTRACT: Excessive sludge in the wastewater treatment basins has to be removed periodically and collected as the form of sludge cake for promising good water quality of the effluent. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of biogas production by anaerobic co-digestion of dairy cattle wastewater and crude glycerol from transesterification of sludge cake. Different ratios of crude glycerol, i.e., 2, 4, and 8% (v/v), from the previous experiment were mixed with dairy cattle wastewater and inoculated with anaerobic sludge in cap-sealed 1-L serum bottles as anaerobic digesters. Although the 8% crude glycerol set showed the highest total biogas and methane production, low pH from volatile fatty acid accumulation decreased the removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, and suspended solids after a 14-d incubation period. The experimental sets with 2 and 4% of crude glycerol increased total methane production up to 177 and 226% compared to the control set, respectively. We found that addition of crude glycerol decreased removal efficiency of total solids and volatile solids. In our study, we proved that slaughterhouse sludge cake is a feasible feedstock for producing biogas through transesterification and anaerobic co-digestion.