Anaerobic digestion of 30−100-year-old boreal lake sedimented fibre from the pulp industry: Extrapolating methane production potential to a practical scale

Abstract

<p>Since the 1980s, the pulp and paper industry in Finland has resulted in the accumulation of fibres in lake sediments. One such site in Lake Näsijärvi contains approximately 1.5 million m³ sedimented fibres. In this study, the methane production potential of the sedimented fibres (on average 13% total solids (TS)) was determined in batch assays. Furthermore, the methane production from solid (on average 20% TS) and liquid fractions of sedimented fibres after solid-liquid separation was studied. The sedimented fibres resulted in fast methane production and high methane yields of 250 ± 80 L CH₄/kg volatile solids (VS). The main part (ca. 90%) of the methane potential was obtained from the solid fraction of the sedimented fibres. In addition, the VS removal from the total and solid sedimented fibres was high, 61–65% and 63–78%, respectively. The liquid fraction also contained a large amount of organics (on average 8.8 g COD/L), treatment of which also has to be considered. The estimations of the methane production potentials in the case area showed potential up to 40 million m³ of methane from sedimented fibres.</p>