Evaluation of phase separated microwave disintegration of dairy waste activated biomass for methane production

Abstract

Waste Activated Biomass (WAB) produced from dairy industries is estimated to be 5% to 25% of total volume of treated effluent with high proportion of biodegradable organic matter. To minimize the environmental problems, proper treatment and disposal methods have been adopted, which in turn affects the overall economy of the dairy industry. Biomass stabilization was effectively carried out with Anaerobic Digestion (AD) and also it obtains energy in the form of biomethane. The limitation in AD can be overcome by a number of disintegration processes such as mechanical, thermal, physical, chemical and biological disintegration. Microwave (MW) irradiation is one of the most potent heat treatment processes for WAB. Still this method has some disadvantages such as high costs and energy consumption. Perhaps it can be made profitable through phase separated microwave disintegration of biomass (Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) dissociation followed by biomass disintegration) which leads to higher yield and minimal energy input. newlineNumerous methods can be adopted for dissociating EPS from the microbial cell wall. The chemical methods with the use of chemicals such as H2O2, zeolite and EGTA were used in this study. newline newline