COMPOUND BIOHYDROGEN REACTOR FOR UTILISATION OF PRESS MUD FROM SUGAR MILLS

摘要

The reactor conception is developed for the pressmud waste of the sugar mills . The reactor is named as compound biohydrogen reactor. The working principle is as follows; the organic waste (press mud from sugar industry and municipal sewage) enters the Co-digester (UASB - Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor) which has been seeded with genetically modified bacteria of the Genus Clostridium and Rhodobacter These bacteria yield a biogas composed by 65 - 70 % of H2 and 35 -30% of CO2. The bacteria consume part of the organic matter dissolved in the water, but leave relevant amounts of N, P, and K. in it. The effluent falls to a pond placed at the base of the reactor where algae are grown. These absorb the CO2 from any combustion process -or the CO2 separated from the biogas by any convenient means-, eliminate the nutrients from the water and fix carbon in their biomass. The algae are filtered and pumped back to the digester to produce more H2, leaving the filtered water with a low content of nutrients, which makes it suitable for agricultural uses. The dynamics and performance of the UASB digesters and their like have been researched since the 90"s and are well known for conventional anaerobic digestion yielding biogas composed mainly by CH4 and CO2. Additionally the performance of fiat or tubular PBR for growing algae with high cultivation densities is quite well known. Hence, the proposed invention explore the possibility of potential utilization of press mud from sugar mills for production of biohydrogen energy with simultaneous algal mass cultivation for an carbon credit and CO2 balance.