Characterization of liquid fraction of digestates after solid-liquid separation from anaerobic co-digestion plants

Agricultural and centralized biogas plants are facing a fast development, leading to the production of huge amounts of digestates. Whereas the solid fraction of digestates is used as fertilizer, the liquid fraction can be valorized by the recovery of mineral materials, although the presence of organic compounds may be problematic for the treatment and disposal of this effluent. The objectives of this thesis are: i) to characterize the liquid fraction of digestates and to provide guidelines for its further treatment, ii) to explain the variability of residual compounds in the liquid fraction of digestates in relation with substrate origin, process parameters and the type of solid-liquid separation. In a first part, eleven digestates from full scale codigestion plants were thoroughly characterized. Their liquid fractions were fractionated by nine successive filtrations, which allowed quantifying the contribution of suspended particles, coarse and fine colloids and dissolved matter on several physico-chemical and biological parameters. Organic compounds were mainly found in suspended particles (> 1.2 µm) and presented low aerobic biodegradability. To enlarge the data base, eighteen more digestates from codigestion and one digestate from waste activated sludge were characterized; their liquid fractions were fractionated by two successive filtrations (1.2 μm and 1 kDa). Principal component analysis, hierarchical clustering analysis and correlation matrix carried out on the 30 digestates set, highlighted the major impact of the solid-liquid separation process on the composition of the liquid fraction of digestates. In the high performance separation process group, subgroups allowed separating digestates from sewage sludge, digestates from pig manure and digestates from plug-flow thermophilic processes. In the low performance separation process group, COD and total solids concentration in the liquid fraction of digestates were correlated to the percentage of energy crops and cow manure in the feed. Finally, SUVA parameter which accounts for aromatic compounds content and the stabilization of organic matter, was correlated to the retention time in digester for the whole digestates set. To understand the origin of residual compounds in the liquid fraction of digestates from co-digestion of high proportions of cattle manure, four CSTR reactors fed with wheat straw, cow dung and cow manure were operated for 48 weeks. Anaerobic digestion performances showed that cow manure had undergone some aerobic degradation during its storage at the farm. Therefore, the liquid fraction of manure digestate had the highest concentrations in organic compounds. In addition, these organic compounds had the highest complexity measured by 3D fluorimetry. The low biodegradability of organic compounds and their high percentage in suspended particles suggest the development of physico-chemical separation process such as coagulation for the treatment of the liquid fraction of digestates