Integrating Anaerobic Digestion of Pig Slurry and Thermal Valorisation of Biomass

Purpose The feasibility of coupling the anaerobic digestion of pig manure and co-pyrolysis of its digestate with milk thistle as lignocellulosic biomass was studied. Kinetic analysis was performed along with an evaluation of energy recovery attained from a combined approach Methods Pig slurry was digested under mesophilic semi-continuous conditions. Digestate was dried and submitted to thermogravimetric analysis under inert atmosphere along with milk thistle samples. Kinetic evaluation was carried out using non-isothermal methods. Assessment of the energy obtained from the combined digestion and pyrolysis process was performed. Results Digestion resulted in a yield of 308.5 ± 18.2 mL CH 4 /g VS. The evaluation of co-pyrolysis of mixtures at different contents of milk thistle showed no interactions between the two materials during pyrolysis. The energy need associated with thermal drying of digestate was 476 MJ/m 3 of pig slurry. Conclusions Co-pyrolysis of lignocellulosic biomass and digestate [25% content of digestate (w/w)] resulted in a lower char production, associated with the lower ash content of the former. The extra supply of energy needed for thermal drying of the digestate might be obtained from co-pyrolysis with biomass. This approach presented an energy recovery of about 29.4% Graphic Abstract