Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Indren, Mathu
• Birzer, Cristian H.
• Kidd, Stephen P.
• Hall, Tony
• Medwell, Paul R.

Titel

Effects of biochar parent material and microbial pre-loading in biochar-amended high-solids anaerobic digestion

Ist Teil von

• Bioresource technology, 2020-02, Vol.298, p.122457-122457, Article 122457

Ort / Verlag

England: Elsevier Ltd

Erscheinungsjahr

2020

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• •Wood-based biochar performed better than biochar from wheat straw or sheep manure.•Microbially pre-loaded wood biochar showed improved performance over raw biochar.•Degradation of propionoate was found in digesters with pre-loaded biochar. This study characterises the effect of biochar (pyrolysed biomass) produced from wood pellets, wheat straw and sheep manure on high-solids anaerobic digestion (HSAD) of poultry litter. Also, pre-loading biochar with microorganisms before addition to HSADs was investigated. The addition of wood pellet biochar provides a 32% increase to the methane yield compared with control digesters. The addition of biochar produced from either wheat straw or sheep manure has detrimental effects on digester performance compared with controls. The addition of wood pellet biochar pre-loaded by placing it in a high-solids digester for 90 days provides a 69% increase in the total methane yield, 44% increase in the peak daily methane yield and a 33% reduction in the lag time compared with controls. This study highlighted a need for careful selection of parent material for biochar production and, for the first time, the opportunities to re-use wood pellet biochar for further improvements.