Patent ID: 12258604

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

A number of exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail, and this detailed description should not be considered as a limitation of the present disclosure, but should be understood as a rather detailed description of certain aspects, characteristics and embodiments of the present disclosure.

It should be understood that the terminology described in the present disclosure is only for describing specific embodiments and is not used to limit the present disclosure. In addition, for the numerical range in the present disclosure, it should be understood that each intermediate value between the upper limit and the lower limit of the range is also specifically disclosed. Intermediate values within any stated value or stated range, as well as each smaller range between any other stated value or intermediate values within the stated range are also included in the present disclosure. The upper and lower limits of these smaller ranges may be independently included or excluded from the range.

Unless otherwise specified, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure relates. Although the present disclosure only describes the preferred methods and materials, any methods and materials similar or equivalent to those described herein can also be used in the practice or testing of the present disclosure. All documents mentioned in this specification are incorporated by reference to disclose and describe methods and/or materials related to the documents. In case of conflict with any incorporated document, the contents of this specification shall prevail.

It is obvious to those skilled in the art that many improvements and changes can be made to the specific embodiments of the present disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the present disclosure. Other embodiments will be apparent to the skilled person from the description of the disclosure. The description and embodiments of the present disclosure are exemplary only.

The terms “including”, “comprising”, “having” and “containing” used in this specification are all open terms, which means including but not limited to.

The method of the present disclosure is applicable to perishable organic matter such as animal manure, kitchen waste, tail vegetables, and so on. The present disclosure illustrates a method for promoting anaerobic digestion using biochar coupled with carbonyl iron with chicken manure as a substrate.

Embodiment 1

1. Experimental Materials

The substrate used for anaerobic digestion is chicken manure collected from a large-scale farm, and the contents of total solids (TS) and volatile solids (VS) of the raw material are 24% and 15%, respectively. The inoculum is obtained from a continuous stirred anaerobic digestion reactor operating normally at medium temperature (36±1 degrees Celsius (° C.)) in a laboratory with 97% water content. The carbonyl iron powder is purchased from Beijing Ruidong Mianyuan Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd., with a particle size of 1-3 μm. The Biochar is prepared from waste fruit trees by pyrolysis, with a final temperature of 550° C., a residence duration of 2 hours, and the biochar is pulverized to a particle size of 0.3 to 0.45 millimeter (mm).

2. Experimental Methods

Volatile solid mass of 10.362 grams (g) of chicken manure is added to each of the four 500 milliliters (mL) anaerobic sequencing batch reactors, followed by inoculation with 120 mL of inoculum, with tap water to finalize the volume to an effective volume of 400 mL of the reactors. The four 500 mL anaerobic sequencing batch reactors are labeled as T1, T2, T3, and CK respectively, where 2% biochar and 6% carbonyl iron powder relative to the mass of volatile solids of the chicken manure are added to T1, 2% biochar relative to the mass of volatile solids of the chicken manure is added to T2, 6% carbonyl iron powder relative to the mass of volatile solids of the chicken manure is added to T3, and CK is the control, in which no biochar and carbonyl iron powder are added.

The biogas produced by the fermentation flows from the outlet hole above the reactor through a silica gel tube into an aluminum foil gas bag for storage. The fermentation cycle is 80 days (d), with a daily measurement of gas production volume, gas composition analysis every 3 d, and sample collection of fermentation broth every 5 d. The fermentation broth is mixed well before sampling, and about 10 mL of samples are collected each time.

3. Experimental Results

FIG.1andFIG.2show the daily and cumulative methane production during anaerobic digestion, respectively. In all treatments, a methane production stagnation period is observed and two daily methane production peaks are exhibited, following generally the same trend. The end product of anaerobic digestion is methane, and the metabolic activity of the microorganisms in the reactor as well as the efficiency of degradation of macromolecular organic matter within the fermentation substrate are represented by the yield of methane. hydrolysis reaction prevails in the reactor during the pre-fermentation period, and most of the methanogenic microorganisms are in growth stagnation, requiring metabolic adjustments for a period of time to adapt to the new growth environment, and the methane production at this stage is relatively low. In groups T1, T2, T3 and CK, the stagnation is continued for 12 d, 18 d, 14 d and 15 d, respectively, with the longest stagnation in the treatment with biochar alone and the shortest in the treatment with biochar coupled with carbonyl iron powder. It is possible that the biochar at this stage mainly acts to enrich hydrolytic acidifying bacteria and activates methanogenic bacteria weakly, resulting in high concentrations of intermediate metabolites. In contrast, carbonyl iron accelerates the degradation of complex organic matter by promoting microbial iron respiration on the one hand, and provides microorganisms with iron supplementation necessary for their growth on the other hand, promoting both hydrolytic acidifying bacteria and methanogenic bacteria. The biochar and carbonyl iron are coupled to provide a synergistic effect to further promote the production of inducible enzymes and the synthesis of intermediary metabolites required by microorganisms, and to shorten the acclimatization period of microorganisms.

The variation trend of daily methane production is more consistent with that of the typical growth curve of microorganisms, and after the stagnation period, the methanogenic microorganisms grow into the logarithmic period, with methane production rising linearly. Of all the treatments, group T1 shows the earliest appearance of daily methane production peak and the highest peak value, reaching 491 mL on the 20thd; the peaks of T2, T3 and CK groups are on the 28th, 22ndand 23rdd, respectively, with the peak values of 415 mL, 445 mL and 345 mL, respectively, which indicating that the coupling of biochar with carbonyl iron advance the appearance of the methane production peak of anaerobic digestion and significantly increase the daily methane production peak (P<0.01).

In T1, T2, T3 and CK groups, the cumulative methane production is 295 mL/g volatile solids (VS), 246 mL/gVS, 268 mL/gVS and 224 mL/gVS, respectively, that is, by coupling or adding biochar and carbonyl iron alone, the cumulative methane production is significantly increased (p<0.05) by 31.5%, 9.9% and 19.4% respectively as compared with the control group. This may be attributed to the fact that carbonyl iron and biochar serve as conductive materials to participate in the direct interspecies electron transfer of mutualistic microorganisms, therefore the oxidative degradation of volatile fatty acids produced by acidification is accelerated and the production of CH4via the CO2hydrogenation pathway is facilitated. Moreover, a microelectrolytic system is likely to be formed within the anaerobic digestion system by biochar and carbonyl iron because of the potential difference between the iron and charcoal, acting as anode and cathode, respectively, to confer and accept electrons and synergistically facilitate electron transfer in the reciprocal methanogenesis pathway.

FIG.3illustrates the pH changes during anaerobic digestion, and all treatments exhibit basically the same trend of change, with a downward and then an upward trend. The rapid decrease of pH in each treatment during the first 5 d of fermentation is attributed to the massive accumulation of organic acids in the system as a result of hydrolytic acidification of complex organic matter. Upon fermentation initiation, the pH values of the T2 and CK groups with biochar added are not differed greatly, being 7.22 and 7.24, respectively, while those of the T1 and T3 groups are 7.53 and 7.33, respectively. The significant increase in pH of the fermentation broth caused by the addition of carbonyl iron may be caused by the oxygen-absorbing corrosive effect of iron induced by the addition of carbonyl iron in a partial-neutral environment. The pH of the T1 and T3 groups decreases more sharply than that of the T1 and CK groups as acidification proceeds, with the largest decrease in the T1 group, and the trends in the T2 and CK groups remain consistent. T1 group also shows the earliest pH rebound, with a trend of increase after the 5thd, while the rebound in T3 and CK groups starts from the 10thd. T2 group shows the latest pH rebound, which starts from the 15thd. As fermentation progresses to the 20th d, the pH values of both T1 and T3 groups are increased to the same level as that of the CK group, and remain on a steady rise thereafter; there is a slight fluctuation in the CK group from 45d-60d, with pH dropping to 8.06 and then recovering to 8.21; in group T2, the pH value is always lower than other treatments, but it is maintained within the suitable range. The pH values of T1, T2, T3 and CK groups at the end of fermentation are 8.43, 8.28, 8.42, 8.39, respectively, such results show that the biochar may lower the pH of the fermentation broth, the carbonyl iron may increase the pH of the fermentation broth, and the coupled addition of biochar and carbonyl iron has a more significant effect on the improvement of the pH.

The conductivity of the anaerobic digestion broth is in a positive correlation with the concentration of soluble salts, where a too high or too low concentration of soluble salts will adversely affect the activity of the anaerobic digestive microorganisms. As observed fromFIG.4, the conductivity of all treatments, although showing fluctuations, is generally in a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. In the first 5 d of fermentation, the concentration of soluble salts in the broth is increased as a result of the hydrolysis of large molecules of insoluble organic matter into the dissolved state, and the EC value rises accordingly. At the start of fermentation, the conductivities of T1, T2, T3 and CK groups are 16.87 millisiemens per centimeter (mS/cm), 19.80 mS/cm, 16.46 mS/cm, and 15.08 mS/cm, respectively. The biochar and carbonyl iron, either added individually or coupled, may increase the conductivity of the fermentation broth at startup, and the boosting effect on the broth is more significant with the addition of biochar alone, potentially a result of the release of cations from the biochar into the fermentation broth. Across the fermentation cycle, the average conductivities of the T1, T2, T3 and CK groups are 19.80 mS/cm, 21.17 mS/cm, 19.54 mS/cm and 20.12 mS/cm, respectively. Generally speaking, the conductivity of the fermentation broth is reduced by the addition of carbonyl iron.

Comparative Embodiment 1

The procedure of T1 reactor is the same as that in Embodiment 1, and the only difference is that carbonyl iron is replaced by nano zero-valent iron.

The cumulative methane production of this comparative embodiment is 243 mL/g VS.

Comparative Embodiment 2

The procedure of T1 reactor is the same as that in Embodiment 1, except that carbonyl iron is replaced by nano zero-valent iron, and 2 g/L of glycerol trioleate is added to the reaction broth.

The cumulative methane production of this comparative embodiment is 292 mL/g VS.

The above-mentioned embodiments only describe the preferred mode of the present disclosure, and do not limit the scope of the disclosure. Under the premise of not departing from the design spirit of the disclosure, various modifications and improvements made by ordinary technicians in the field to the technical scheme of the disclosure shall fall within the protection scope determined by the claims of the disclosure.