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Published on: July 19, 2018
Quantifying physical structure changes and non-uniform water flow in cattle manure during dry anaerobic digestion
L André1, M Durante2, A Pauss2
1ERigène, 19 rue Pierre Waguet, 60000 Beauvais, France; Sorbonne Universités, EA 4297 TIMR UTC/ESCOM, UTC, CS 60 319, 60 203 Compiègne Cedex, France; Institut Polytechnique LaSalle Beauvais, Département des Sciences et Techniques Agro-Industrielles, rue Pierre Waguet, BP 30313, 60026 Beauvais Cedex, France.
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to investigate and quantify non-uniform water flow during dry AD and its implication for biogas production. Laboratory tracer experiments were performed on cattle manure over the course of AD. The evolution of the permeability, the dry bulk density, the dry porosity, the total and volatile solid contents of cattle manure at different stages of AD, revealed waste structure changes, impacting water flow and methane production. Tracer experiments and numerical modeling performed by using a physical non-equilibrium model indicated non-uniform preferential flow patterns during degradation. According to literature, the increase of inoculum recirculation frequency improved methane production rate. However, these results demonstrated that this improvement occurs only at the beginning of manure degradation. After 19 days of degradation the inoculum recirculation and the flow patterns modification had no effect on methane production rate.
