Digester for high solids waste

摘要

A digester with separate stages for hydrolysis and methanogenesis is disclosed. The digester includes a leachate bay reactor, which may be configured as modular, multi-bay units. Waste material is added to the leachate bay reactor. A leachate storage tank is fluidically connected to the leachate bay reactor, which facilitates hydrolysis. Leachate from the leachate storage tank is recirculated through the leachate bay reactor. A high rate methanogenic reactor is fluidically connected to the leachate storage tank to cycle the leachate in a fixed film environment for biogas production from solubilized organic matter. The reactor may be operated in an anaerobic digestion mode, or a dual aerobic-anaerobic digestion mode. The reactor may also include a struvite system having a crystallizer unit and a separation unit to reduce ammonium and phosphate accumulation during operation.

主权项

1. A method comprising:
feeding waste streams of different solid content into one of a leachate bay reactor, a leachate storage tank, and a high rate reactor such that each of the leachate bay reactor, the leachate storage tank, and the high rate reactor receives waste stream with different values for at least one waste stream characteristic; recirculating leachate between the leachate bay reactor for hydrolysis and the leachate storage tank; cycling leachate from the leachate storage tank to the high rate reactor for methogenesis;and cyclically processing the waste streams in the leachate bay reactor through anaerobic and aerobic cycles.