INVESTIGADORES
CANDAL Roberto Jorge
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Specific Methanogenic Activity Test: a key tool for measure the efficiency of anaerobic reactors
Autor/es:
BRES P; BEILY M. E.; COSTA S.; AVILA J. L; CANDAL R.J.; CRESPO D.
Lugar:
San Martín
Reunión:
Simposio; 5th International Symposium on Environmental Biotechnology and Engineering; 2016
Institución organizadora:
ABIAER
Resumen:
The specific methanogenic activity (SMA) test, evaluates the anaerobic sludge capability to convert an organic substrate into methane (1). The efficiency of the anaerobic treatment or the evolution of start-up reactors can be monitored by SMA test. Although the literature reports different methods for the SMA test, there is no standardized protocol, which makes difficult to compare between SMA results achieved by different research groups. In this context, the main aim of this work was to standardize SMA test, and to corroborate the effectiveness of this test with batch reactor design that allows biogas quantification in a simple way. Batch reactors were designed using 500 ml glass bottles with threaded neck. Each cap was made of polypropylene and a stainless steel spherical valve was added on the top. Opening the valve allows the user to quantify and analyze the biogas production. Preliminaries assays were carried out to adjust headspace, the inoculum and the substrate concentrations. The SMA tests were standardized with 20% headspace, 4gSSV/L of inoculum and 2 gDQO/L of sodium acetate as only source of carbon. The SMA test standardized, were evaluated from eight slurries of different anaerobic sources. The sludge samples were collected from anaerobic reactors used in the treatment of: citric waste (CW), swine and forage wastes (SFW), poultry manure (1PM, 2PM), dairy wastewaters (DW) and from brewing industry (1BI, 2BI, 3BI). Physic and chemical variables were determined by reference methods (APHA, 1992), at the initial and the end of the assay. Biogas production was measured daily by manometric method and the methane and carbon dioxide concentrations were measured by gas chromatography. The results of SMA (expressed as gDQO/gSSV.d) were 0.13, 0.11, 0.11 for 1B1, 2BI and 3BI respectively, 0.08, for 1PM, 0.05 for 2PM, 0.07 for DW, 0.06 for CW and 0.04 for SFW. These results showed that the highest AME was founded in granular slurries of BI and the lowest SMA was in SFW. The SMA of the SFW showed a low efficiency of anaerobic treatment. On the other hand, the results of the SMA test were similar with those reported by others researchers on this types of sludge.The methodology applied and the design batch reactors developed in this experiment, were efficient and a good option for methanogenic activity monitoring.