Application of geopolymers as pH buffering materials in anaerobic processes treating organic waste

• Autor(a) principal: Correia, Catarina Lima
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/24918
• topic: Industrial wastewater treatment; Anaerobic digestion; Methane; Fly-ash based geopolymers; pH; Cheese whey

In an anaerobic process, pH is one of the parameters which greatly influence the performance of these systems, affecting both chemical reactions and microbial activity, due to the microorganisms sensitivity to pH variations. Hence, it is essential pH control to the entire anaerobic process stability, especially when dealing with easily biodegradable substrates. The present work had as main objective the study of the long-term utilization of geopolymers for pH control in anaerobic processes for methane production, treating easily acidifiable substrates. It was used anaerobic batch reactors with 1 L of working volume and cheese whey as substrate, and performed two studies. In the first study, in order to select the concentration and type of geopolymers that promote a higher methane volume production, it were used three reactors with the addition of geopolymers with different porosity and concentrations and one reactor with the addition of chemical alkalinity (reference). The second study, in order to evaluate the long-term geopolymers performance and reproducibility, it was divided in four phases, with successive additions of substrate. So, it was used one reactor as reference and two reactors with the selected conditions in the first study (type and concentration of the geopolymers). In the first study, it was observed that the reactor with the addition of 16 g/L of geopolymers with higher porosity produced the highest methane volume. In both studies, and in general, the reactors presented a similar pH and COD performance, with an increase in COD values in the start-up period (phase 1) in the reactors with addition of geopolymers, due to the lixiviation of organic compounds from the spheres. After the various successive substrate additions, the fastest decrease in the COD values showed the capacity of organic matter removal and recovery of the system. The rapid VFA consume suggested a good adaptation of the microbial culture methane production. The results herein obtained confirm that the fly-ash containing geopolymers allow the control of pH for methane production in anaerobic processes. In light of this, this work could bring new insights to the current problems either related with pH control in AD process, or landfill disposal of fly ash and the associated environmental problems of this type of residues