Degradation efficiency of agricultural biogas plants - A full-scale study

The degradation efficiency of 21 full-scale agricultural CSTR biogas plants was investigated. The residual methane potential of the digestion stages was determined in batch digestion tests (20.0 and 37.0 degrees C). The results of this study showed that the residual methane yield is significantly correlated to the HRT (r = -0.73). An almost complete degradation of the input substrates was achieved due to a HRT of more than 100 days (0.097 +/- 0.017 Nm(3)/kg VS). The feedstock characteristics have the largest impact to the degradation time. It was found that standard values of the methane yield are a helpful tool for evaluating the degradation efficiency. Adapting the HRT to the input materials is the key factor for an efficient degradation in biogas plants. No influence of digester series configuration to the VS degradation was found. The mean VS degradation rate in the total reactor systems was 78 +/- 7%. (C) 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd.