The Effect of Total Solids Content on Bioenergy Yield: an Experimental Study

The present research focuses on the experimental study of the effect of varying Total Solids (TS) content, one of the most important influencing factors on the biogas production from the anaerobic digestion. Eight batch digesters of sludge lagoon station’s sludge, each with a different TS content ranging from 5 to 40% (expressed as substrate mass/water mass), were launched under mesophilic conditions (35 ± 2 °C). The results of the anaerobic digestion process after 120 days revealed that the total biogas volume proportionally increased as TS concentrations increased from 5 to 35%, with an increase from 4.183 to 26.451 L. Based on this increase, a TS content of 35% is regarded as the optimal threshold under our conditions. Beyond that, a higher TS content inhibits the anaerobic digestion process. These results also show that the minimum potential energy that can be produced from this waste is 629.3 GWh per year.