Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Energy Production And Effluent Quality In Tubular Digesters Treating Livestock Waste In Rural Costa Rica, Maureen Njoki Kinyua

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Use of tubular anaerobic digesters to treat livestock waste in developing countries has energy, agricultural, health, social and environmental benefits. However, careful use of digester effluent as a soil amendment is required due to the potential presence of protozoan parasites Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia lamblia. This research investigated the performance of four tubular digesters in the Monteverde region of Costa Rica. High (>75%) volatile solids and BOD5 removal efficiencies were observed, which was attributed to the formation of a biologically active floccular sludge layer. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and bioprocess models were developed to evaluate the transport and transformation …