Biochar as Additive in Biogas-Production from Bio-Waste

Previous publications about biochar in anaerobic digestion show encouraging results with regard to increased biogas yields. This work investigates such effects in a solid-state fermentation of bio-waste. Unlike in previous trials, the influence of biochar is tested with a setup that simulates an ind...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Daniel Meyer-Kohlstock, Thomas Haupt, Erik Heldt, Nils Heldt, Eckhard Kraft
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2016-03-01
Series:Energies
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/9/4/247
Description
Summary:Previous publications about biochar in anaerobic digestion show encouraging results with regard to increased biogas yields. This work investigates such effects in a solid-state fermentation of bio-waste. Unlike in previous trials, the influence of biochar is tested with a setup that simulates an industrial-scale biogas plant. Both the biogas and the methane yield increased around 5% with a biochar addition of 5%—based on organic dry matter biochar to bio-waste. An addition of 10% increased the yield by around 3%. While scaling effects prohibit a simple transfer of the results to industrial-scale plants, and although the certainty of the results is reduced by the heterogeneity of the bio-waste, further research in this direction seems promising.
ISSN:1996-1073