BIOMETHANATION OF HIGH SOLID CONTAINING DISTILLERY SPENTWASH USING DEVELOPED ACCLIMATIZED MICROBIAL CONSORTIARAGHUNATH VISHNU BURASE, SANJAY VASANTRAO PATIL AND RAJENDRA D. JOSHIAbstract Biomethanation of spent wash (SW) is now a well established technology in distilleries. At present in distilleries average COD reduction could be achieved around 60-65% for SW having COD in the range of 100000-130000 mg/L. But SW obtained from integrated evaporation system has COD 230000-250000 mg/L. However, biomethanation of concentrated SW (20-30 °brix) is problematic due to relatively poorer digestion efficiency and intolerance of consortia of microbes to some inhibitors. The objective of the current study is to understand the acclimatization of methanogenic consortia to concentrated SW. The sludge containing methanogenic bacterial consortia from biogas plant was used for acclimatization. The developed acclimatized consortia of methanogenic bacteria were used for biomethanation of concentrated SW. The performance of developed bacterial consortia for the production of methane was evaluated on bench scale (10 l). This study successfully demonstrates the application of acclimatized consortia of methanogenic bacteria for operation on bench scale with enhanced COD reduction in the range of 64 to 74% using 25 to 30 °brix SW. The control biodigester using un-acclimatized inoculum at 30°brix SW showed maximum 43% COD reduction and less gas production compared to experiment. |