Improvement of dairy manufacture effluent anaerobic digestion with biological waste addition using a Chinese dome digester

Anaerobic co-digestion of dairy manufacture effluent (DME) and biological waste (BW) was investigated at various DME/BW ratios using laboratory batch digesters. The biogas yield ranged 0.34–0.88 l biogas g−1 volatile solids (VS) removed. The highest VS reductions of 58% and 62% were obtained for DME/BW ratios of 60:40% and 80:20%, respectively. Results were used to operate a pilot-scale digester of 5 m3. The highest biogas yield of 0.48 l g−1 VS removed was obtained at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 1.64 g VS l−1 d−1 corresponding to a DME/BW ratio of 80:20%. This could be mainly attributed to the higher biodegradability of DME and the correction of the C:N ratio by the addition of the BW. The N, P and K contents were increased significantly in the TS of the digestate to be around 6.8%, 0.64% and 1.26%, respectively.