Thermal post-treatment of digestate in order to increase biogas production with simultaneous pasteurization

Biogas production by anaerobic digestion (AD) of organic wastes is important for the transition to fossil free fuels in both the transport sector, industries and shipping. The aim of this study was to target the residual organic matter in the outgoing residue from the AD process, so called digestate, with different thermal treatment methods in order to improve digestate degradability and biogas potential upon post-digestion. The thermal treatment was performed at 55 °C in 24 h, 70 °C in 1 h and by thermal hydrolysis process (THP; 165 °C, 8 bar in 0.33 h), and were carefully selected to offer a simultaneous possibility for pasteurization of the digestate according to the regulations in Sweden. Digestates from ten full-scale biogas plants were collected, with different substrate profiles including wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), food waste digestion, agriculture digestion and manure digestion. The results showed that all thermal treatment methods caused increased dissolved organic carbon concentration (DOC). Four of the thermal treated digestates with the highest increase in DOC were subsequently tested for the bio-methane potential. Thermal treatments at 70 °C and THP, respectively, resulted in the highest increase in bio-methane potentials, with an increase of 15-39% for one WWTP, 38 - 40% for digestate from an agriculture digestion plant and 20 - 22% for digestate from a co-digestion plant treating food waste. Interestingly, the bio-methane potential from digestate treated with the energy-intense THP method, did not show any significant difference compared to thermal treatment at 70 °C for 1 h. The outcomes of this study suggest that placing a pasteurization unit between a main digester and a post digester, when applying two-step digestion allows for a combined pasteurization and increased biogas production.