Energy recovery from brewery waste: Experimental and modelling perspectives

Eric Siqueiros*, Rasaq O. Lamidi, Pankaj B. Pathare, Yaodong Wang, A. P. Roskilly

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Food and drink processing industries are extremely large consumers of thermal energy as well as bio-wastes producers. The utilisation of bio-wastes for energy recovery appears to be a good opportunity to improve the overall efficiency of process industries. In this study, waste generation, management and energy auditing of a micro-brewery located in the north east of England is investigated. Fermented grains and hops are disposed as organic wastes after the production process. Hence, this study focuses on recovery of energy from these wastes through anaerobic digestion process. Experimental work was carried out in the laboratory for the wastes characterisation. The waste samples are then anaerobically digested at 550C and 350C with a 5L laboratory scale continuous stirred reactor using 5 gVSL-1 and 25 days organic loading rates and hydraulic retention times respectively. Further to the experimental work, simulations were completed to evaluate the feasibility of the process. ASPEN plus simulation software was used to carry out the simulations using a novel approach for AD which is based on the ADM1 model. The experimental results showed that biogas can be produced at mesophilic and thermophilic conditions: 3.0 and 2.6 litres per day respectively. At thermophilic conditions, the methane content is 65 % while at mesophilic conditions, it is 55%. It is also found that the values of the final biogas production from the simulation were similar to the ones obtained in the experiments (-6.85%). However, the model would need further modifications to be able to accurately predict the biogas compositions. The result shows that the thermophilic process is able to fuel 126.01 kW boiler while mesophilic process can power 76.48kW boiler.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)24-31
Number of pages8
JournalEnergy Procedia
Volume161
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Event2nd International Conference on Sustainable Energy and Resource Use in Food Chains, ICSEF 2018 - Paphos, Cyprus
Duration: Oct 17 2018Oct 19 2018

Keywords

  • Anaerobic Digestion Simulation
  • Brewery waste
  • Heat recovery

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Energy

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