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Improving Anaerobic Digestion with Biochar
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Transcript:
A growing worldwide population is resulting in greater agricultural demand and therefore greater agricultural waste. Managing livestock manure is a messy problem, with many public health and environmental challenges, that we need to address.
But manure is also an opportunity. We can mitigate these issues while producing useful resources, like biogas and fertiliser, through the process of anaerobic digestion.
The beauty of this solution is that it is applicable at a range of scales: from subsistence farming in the humanitarian/development context, up to city-scale municipal waste treatment systems. We just need to overcome some critical barriers to widespread adoption.
Low biogas production is a common issue for livestock manures. This is typically a consequence of excessive production of acids and/or ammonia during organic matter breakdown. These substances stress crucial microorganisms responsible for breaking down manure and producing biogas.
To improve biogas production from manure, researchers from the University of Adelaide are testing a novel solution to alleviate inhibitory stress on microorganisms.
First, they pack manure into a leach bed reactor which passes water through the manure as it breaks down. This fluid collects acids which are then transferred to an anaerobic filter packed with biochar. As the fluid passes through the filter medium, microorganisms within convert the acids to biogas.
What makes this method special, is the innovative use of biochar: a porous material, akin to a high-rise building housing millions of microorganisms. The researchers believe the biochar filter will improve acid conversion and resistance to ammonia, resulting in more biogas.
But they have several important research questions:
- Does the biochar filter alleviate stress on microorganisms?
- How do the physical properties of the biochar, like porosity and surface area, influence performance?
- How does co-digesting manure with crop wastes influence performance?
- And finally, how does the diverse microorganism community evolve with filter use?
There’s much to learn and so much to gain.
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