Hydrogen and Methane production from OFMSW and sewage sludge by two phases anaerobic codigestion

Abstract

In this paper a two-phase anaerobic codigestion of organic fraction of municipal solid waste and sewage sludge has been investigated experimentally. The aim of this work is to verify the feasibility and the performance of the process for the hydrogen and methane production. The experimental was carried out at pilot scale using two stirred reactors both maintained at thermophilic temperature (55°C) and fed semicontinuously with separate collected biowaste and sewage sludge. Nor chemicals neither recirculation were used to control the pH in first phase. The study lasted 50 days in which there were no evidences of any instability in the process.It was confirmed the possibility to obtain a stable hydrogen production with a specific average hydrogen production of 40 l per kg of total volatile solid (TVS) fed and a specific biogas production in the second phase of 0.32 m3per kgTVS fed.The biogas produced has a composition characterized by a stable presence of hydrogen over 5%. Therefore, the biogas produced meets the composition characteristic of biohythane