Biochemical and Biomolecular Engineering Commons^™

Effect Of Shear On Performance And Microbial Ecology Of Continuously Stirred Anaerobic Digesters Treating Animal Manure, Rebecca A. Hoffmann, Marcelo L. Garcia, Mehul Veskivar, Khursheed Karim, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan, Largus T. Angenent

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We Determined the Effect of Different Mixing Intensities on the Performance, Methanogenic Population Dynamics, and Juxtaposition of Syntrophic Microbes in Anaerobic Digesters Treating Cow Manure from a Dairy Farm. Computer Automated Radioactive Particle Tracking in Conjunction with Computational Fluid Dynamics Was Performed to Quantify the Shear Levels Locally. Four Continuously Stirred Anaerobic Digesters Were Operated at Different Mixing Intensities of 1,500, 500, 250, and 50 Revolutions Per Min (RPM) over a 260-Day Period at a Temperature of 34 ± 1°C. Animal Manure at a Volatile Solids (VS) Concentration of 50 G/L Was Fed into the Digesters Daily at Five Different …