Study of Anaerobic Conversion of Bagasse into Biomass Energy

• Main Authors: Chao-Chieh Hsu, 許超傑
• Other Authors: Chu-Yang Chou
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/74163817279227441665

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 生物產業機電工程學研究所 === 94 === In this study, bagasses were anaerobically digested to produce short chain volatile fatty acids (VFA) and methane. The fermented products – acidic effluent was then fed into an alkaline fuel cell as the substrate to test its performance in generating electric power. There were two sources of tested bagasses, one was obtained from market and another was from Taiwan Sugar Corporation. Seeds used for digestion were collected from the settled sludge of an anaerobic digester of the three-stage cow wastewater treatment system in Department of Animal Science and Technology, National Taiwan University. There were two groups of tests conducted in this study: one group was operated to compare the effect of different mixing ratios of bagasses from different sources (totally 4 levels), and the other group was operated to investigate the effect of different seeding concentrations (totally 3 levels). Experimental results showed that quite a lot of bagasses were degraded, and VFA (most were short chain acetate and butyrate) and methane were the major products. For the subsequent alkaline fuel cell performance tests, using the above acidic effluents as the substrate, results showed the fuel cell did generate electric power. The open circuit potential was achieved up to around 300 mV. However, further study is required to explore the measure to lift the VFA concentration and the efficiency of electrical power for fuel cell.