Biodegradation of spent pulping liquor lignins under mesophilic and thermophilic anaerobic conditions.Application: This study may help mills improve the efficiency of their anaerobic anaerobic /an·aer·o·bic/ (an?ah-ro´bik) 1. lacking molecular oxygen. 2. growing, living, or occurring in the absence of molecular oxygen; pertaining to an anaerobe. digesters. ********** We conducted a laboratory scale feasibility study on the anaerobic treatment of spent pulping liquor effluent in upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactors. We tested thermophilic ther·mo·phil·ic adj. Requiring high temperatures for normal development, as certain bacteria. and mesophilic conditions and found that, in spite of high levels of sodium and lignin lignin (lĭg`nĭn), a highly polymerized and complex chemical compound especially common in woody plants. The cellulose walls of the wood become impregnated with lignin, a process called lignification, which greatly increases the strength and in the liquor, up to 80% of CODs can be successfully removed at a specific removal rate of 0.22 g COD [g.sup.-1] VSS [d.sup.-1] for mesophilic conditions and 0.57 g COD [g.sup.-1] VSS [d.sup.-1] for thermophilic conditions. Throughout the experiment, we observed lignin accumulation in the mesophilic reactor, but not in the thermophilic reactor. Lignin measurements confirmed that up to 59% of lignin was degraded under thermophilic conditions. It appeared that higher activity of thermophilic biomass coupled with higher solubility and hence bioavailability of lignin under thermophilic conditions contributed to the observed lignin removal. S! Tartakovsky, Cimpoia, and Guiot are with the Biotechnology Research Institute, NRCC, 6100 Royalmount Ave., Montreal, Quebec, Canada H4P 2R2; Lo is with Domtar Inc., Cornwall, Ontario; Petti pet·ti n. pl. pet·tis 1. A woman's petticoat. 2. A pettislip. is with MDS MDS, n See temporomandibular pain-dysfunction syndrome. MDS 1 Maternal deprivation syndrome, see there 2 Myelodysplastic syndrome, see there Nordion, Ottawa, Ontario; and Liard is a consultant. Email Guiot at Serge.Guiot@nrc.ca. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion