Co-digestion of domestic wastewater and organic fraction of food waste using anaerobic membrane bioreactor: a pilot scale study

Abstract

In this study, a co-digestion pilot scale study of a mixture of domestic wastewater and the organic fraction of food waste using an anaerobic membrane bioreactor was developed. The results show that the removal efficiencies of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total suspended solids (TSS) were high and reached more than 90%. However, the removal of nitrogen and phosphate was not remarkable. The daily biogas yield reached 2.12 m³/d. The obtained biogas per COD removed was 0.22 m³/kg COD removed. The average generated methane yield was 1.33 m³/d, which is equivalent to 0.14 m³/kg COD removed . A high efficiency of organic compound removal combined with a large amount of retained nutrients and high biogas yield suggests the results of this pilot scale study can be practically applied to the recovery of nutrients for agricultural use along with biogas for cooking. These benefits remarkably reduce environmental pollution, especially for decentralized residential areas and independent-stationed military units located far from concentrated wastewater treatment plants.