Assessment of ozone as a pretreatment to improve anaerobic digestion of vinasse

Abstract

This paper presents an assessment of ozone oxidative effects on the biodegradability of sugar cane vinasse, aiming at increasing the methane yield by anaerobic digestion of this effluent. Furthermore, as a new approach, an economic balance of this process was made. Using a bench scale reactor, ozone was applied at 60, 120, 180, 240 mgO3.gCOD-1 doses in raw vinasse and at three initial pH values (4.8, 7 and 9). Applying 60 mgO3.gCOD-1, the biodegradability of vinasse was increased by 22.7% at the initial pH value of 4.8. The application of the two-way ANOVA test indicated a significant statistical interaction between the pH value and ozone. However, a preliminary energy assessment showed that the amount of electricity consumed in a full-scale ozonation plant would be almost 6 times higher than the energy recovered from the combustion of the additional methane produced (13.6%). These results indicate that ozonation of raw vinasse to increase the methane production in a subsequent anaerobic process is economically unfeasible.