Small Scale Anaerobic Digestion in an Urban Environment

Climate change is quickly impacting the environment . Humans are an active contributor to the increasing rates of climate change; food waste contributes to 8% of greenhouse gasses. At Loyola University of Chicago there is a need to work towards reducing this carbon footprint, this can be done using Loyola’s food waste. The food waste can be captured and utilized in the processes of anaerobic digestion to create biogas. Anerobic digestion follows four steps, hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis, and methanogenesis. Introducing this program to Loyola will help eliminate food waste and benefit the environment. In order to accomplish Loyola\u27s net carbon goals, we have experimented with small-scale anaerobic digesters to test this beneficial program

Reducing Food Waste Contributions to Greenhouse Gas Emission Through the Use of Anerobic Digesters

The small batch anaerobic digesters resemble the reactors that could one day be used on our campus. In this experiment diluting the inoculum as pretreatment was tested. To test this digester drawl was taken from Metropolitan Water Reclamation District and diluted with various amounts of water. Each reactor was then fed the same amount of substrate. To measure which treatment was more effective the amount of total gas and methane produced by each treatment was collected. Each reactor was fed twice more. It can be concluded that diluting the inoculum as a form of pretreatment is not effective

UTILIZING BIOREACTORS TO REMOVE​ DISSOLVED NUTRIENTS IN WASTEWAT

An abundance of nutrients wastewater, including nitrogen and phosphorus, has led to algae covering the walls and floors of three pools within one water treatment system for the sponsor. Although algae growth within water systems poses no severe health risk, the amount of growth (up to 10,000 square feet) is an aesthetic issue. The goal is to design and implement a bioreactor to remove the dissolved nutrients attributed to algae growth in the water. After researching different types of biological filters, the solution that fits within constraints best is an attached growth biological filter with plastic media