What is anaerobic digestion?
Anaerobic digestion is a biological process where bacteria divide organic material into basic compounds without required to require oxygen as part of the process. It is believed that these bacteria appeared on Earth approximately 3,800,000,000 years ago and were a dominant form of life on the planet before plants occurred. Given that the life of plants originated about 3,200,000,000 years ago, anaerobic digestion continued in the natural environment where oxygen was missing, such as swamps, waterfall soils and constantly covered with water, such as lakes and rivers. Biological processes of anaerobic digestion require several types of bacteria to break down organic matter in a number of four steps, including hydrolysis, fermentation, acetogenesis and methanogenesis. This is done in waste processing facilities that process agricultural waste, such as lamp or municipal waste. The brewing industry also relies on anaerobic digestion to break organic by -products of beer production for methane fuel that would otherwise have MuseLO to be discarded systems of wastewater treatment.
The process of anaerobic digestion in nature is also helpful in creating a form of renewable energy known as natural gas. Although natural gas is a fossil fuel, it consists of about 80% methane along with other related gases such as propane and butane, and is easier to generate ground than other fossil fuels such as oil. It is a fossil fuel, which is often stored among other fossil fuels such as coal and oil.
Industrial biomass reactors that process waste biomass, such as fertilizer to generate fuel, generally produce smaller methane gas as a percentage of volume than what is contained in natural gas. The typical output of the biogas from digester is 50% to 80% methane with a significant amount of waste gas in the form of carbon dioxide at 20% to 50%. In a process that has a certain commercial value such as hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen and tOxic gases that must be safely destroyed are also generated by other trace gases, including hydrogen sulphide and carbon monoxide.
Biological processes that are necessary for effective drainage of waste can be complex and rely on strictly controlled conditions. The temperature is the main problem in the process, because bacteria that break down waste are best at different levels. Some of the bacteria are mesophilic, prosperous at a slight temperature of 98 ° Fahrenheit (36.7 ° C) and some are thermophilic and benefit at a higher optimum temperature of 130 ° Fahrenheit (54.4 ° Celsius).
The conditions must be changed for temperature, pH and other factors, such as the water ratio versus the solid cloth of biomass and the carbon/nitrogen ratio as an organic material is also chemically degraded. The two main types of bacteria used in anaerobic digestion are acetogenic and methanogenic bacteria, and although they are used in tandem, each has unique living conditions under which they are doing well. Acetogen bacteria produce chemical acetate during anaerobic digestion and methanogenic bacteria produce methane.
Biomass material is taken in four stages for effective methane regeneration. The hydrolysis stage uses water to decompose solids or semi -sized compounds, and then use fermentation or acidogenesis to decompose carbohydrate chain structures, either fermentation or acidogenesis. Acetogenesis is then used as a third step in a process where acetogen bacteria convert organic acids into acetic acid along with other by -products such as hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The last step of methanogenusis uses methanogenic bacteria to combine these primary acetate, hydrogen and carbon dioxide to methane, which can then be used for fuel.