Process Optimisation of Anaerobic Digestion Treating High-Strength Wastewater in the Australian Red Meat Processing Industry.

Featured Application: The application of this work is directly related to food processing industries such as slaughterhouses which produce high strength wastewater. An additional featured application is the opportunity for co-digestion where co-located industries, such as nearby beef feedlots, can develop synergistic partnerships in which waste can contribute to anaerobic digestion systems at slaughterhouse facilities to help optimise the process and also result in waste disposal for one industry and energy production and offsets for the other. This work represents and reviews a compilation of investigations into improving anaerobic digestion performance of high-strength wastewater in the Australian Red Meat Processing industry. The industry produces significant quantities of organic-rich wastewater which requires treatment prior to release to the environment. Anaerobic lagoons are a cost-effective method of waste treatment where land availability is not an issue; however, the high fat load in the wastewater can negatively impact the anaerobic lagoon system and result in compromised anaerobic digestion performance. This paper will discuss the importance of upstream primary pre-treatment and review a series of investigations focused on optimising digester performance and improving fat biodegradability. These studies include: 1. the effect of temperature and mixing; 2. the influence of feedstock trace element composition and supplementation, and; 3. the potential benefit from pre-treatments such as chemical, thermobaric, thermochemical and bio-surfactant. This paper discusses the implications of these findings for covered anaerobic lagoon operation and provides recommendations to promote optimum digester performance and future opportunities in adopting alternate anaerobic digestion technology options. Finally, the paper provides recent trends toward the use of other waste streams for co-digestion and discusses this in terms of digester optimization and technology options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]