Conference Publication Details
Mandatory Fields
Wall, DM;O'Kiely, P;Murphy, JD
PAPERS OF THE 22ND EUROPEAN BIOMASS CONFERENCE: SETTING THE COURSE FOR A BIOBASED ECONOMY
DIGESTION OF GRASS SILAGE AND DAIRY SLURRY AT BATCH AND CONTINUOUS SCALE
2014
January
Validated
1
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Optional Fields
METHANE PRODUCTION ENERGY CROPS ANAEROBIC-DIGESTION MONO-DIGESTION BIOMETHANE
493
497
The predominant crop feedstock for anaerobic digestion in Germany and Austria is maize. Ireland, with a temperate climate, is more suited to the production of grass and can achieve high yields (upto 16 t DM ha(-1)). Grassland accounts for over 90% of agricultural land in Ireland. Irish agriculture is dominated by beef and milk production. Thus there is significant potential to produce biomethane from the co-digestion of grass silage and slurry. Mono-digestion of grass silage has been reported to give difficulties due to a deficiency in essential trace elements during long term operation. A comprehensive analysis of the digestion of grass silage and its co-digestion with dairy slurry has been undertaken in laboratory studies at both batch and continuous scale. The results illustrate that larger proportions of grass in the substrate mix correspond to higher specific methane yields. It was also shown that effluent liquor return improved the performance of the continuous digestion of grass silage in mono- and co- digestion, facilitating operation at higher organic loading rates. It is suggested that hydraulic retention time can be the limiting factor in the loading rate of grass based digesters.
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