Numerical Study of Anaerobic Digestion System for Olive Pomace and Mill Wastewater

This work aims to develop an anaerobic digestion system, which allows recovering energy from olive wastes, solving the problem of their disposal. To reach this result, polyphenols, which are contained in olives inhibiting the digestion process, have to be abated. For this reason a new anaerobic digestion system able to treat the high concentration of polyphenols has been studied. Particularly, this system, composed by a storage of olive pomace, a mixing/washing unit, a pomace/water separation unit (decanter), an ultrafiltration unit and an anaerobic digester, has been numerically investigated to evaluate the anaerobic digestion key variables as a function of the hydraulic retention time (HRT), as well as the production of biogas for different values of the biomass yield factor. The results revealed that by abating polyphenols, the methane potential of the system under investigation rises from 7.5 molCH4/kgTSS to 11.7 molCH4/kgTSS, with an increment of about 56%, for HRT equal to 30 days.