Improved methane fermentation of chicken manure via ammonia removal by biogas recycle

This study demonstrates methane fermentation that was carried out along with ammonia striping to avoid ammonia accumulation that significantly inhibited methane production. Ammonia was successfully removed by means of recycling of biogas followed by gas washing in sulfuric acid to capture ammonia, when chicken manure was anaerobically digested for 4 days at 55 °C and at an initial pH of 8–9. By using this method, 80% of total nitrogen in chicken manure was converted to ammonia and 82% of the produced ammonia was removed. A bench scale reactor equipped with an ammonia-stripping unit for methane production from chicken manure was developed and operated in repeated batch mode. At an initial pH of 8 and at 55 °C, 195 and 157 ml g-VS−1 of methane was successfully produced from the treated chicken manure and the mixture of treated chicken manure and raw chicken manure in the ratio of 1:1, respectively. In this method, ammonia concentration was maintained at a level lower than 2 g-N kg-wet sludge−1 in the reactor.