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Design and Use of a Full Flow Sampling System FFS for the Quantification of Methane Emissions
Published on: June 12, 2016
Employing response surface methodology (RSM) to improve methane production from cotton stalk
Han Zhang1,2, Habiba Khalid1, Wanwu Li2
1Biomass Energy and Environmental Engineering Research Center, College of Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, 505 Zonghe Building A, 15 North 3rd Ring East Road, Beijing, 100029, China.
Abstract:
China is the largest cotton producer with the cotton output accounting for 25% of the total world's cotton production. A large quantity of cotton stalk (CS) waste is generated which is burned and causes environmental and ecological problems. This study investigated the anaerobic digestibility of CS by focusing on improving the methane yield by applying central composite design of response surface methodology (RSM). The purpose of this study was to determine the best level of factors to optimize the desired output of methane production from CS. Thus, it was necessary to describe the relationship of many individual variables with one or more response values for the effective utilization of CS. The influences of feed to inoculum (F/I) ratio and organic loading (OL) on methane production were investigated. Results showed that the experimental methane yield (EMY) and volatile solid (VS) removal were calculated to be 70.22 mL/gVS and 14.33% at F/I ratio of 0.79 and organic loading of 25.61 gVS/L, respectively. Characteristics of final effluent showed that the anaerobic system was stable. This research laid a foundation for future application of CS to alleviate the problems of waste pollution and energy output.
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