| Title |
Design, Construction, and Concept Validation of a Laboratory-Scale Two-phase Reactor to Valorize Whiskey Distillery By-products |
| ID_Doc |
26053 |
| Authors |
Hackula, A; O'Shea, R; Murphy, JD; Wall, DM |
| Title |
Design, Construction, and Concept Validation of a Laboratory-Scale Two-phase Reactor to Valorize Whiskey Distillery By-products |
| Year |
2023 |
| Published |
Acs Engineering Au, 3, 4 |
| DOI |
10.1021/acsengineeringau.3c00006 |
| Abstract |
The by-products generated from the whiskey distillationprocessconsist of organic liquids with a high chemical oxygen demand (COD)and residues with a high solid content. Low-carbon strategies thatrepurpose and valorize such by-products are now imperative to reducethe carbon footprint of the food and beverage industries. The operationof a two-phase anaerobic digester to produce volatile fatty acids(VFAs) and biogas may enable distilleries to transition toward a low-carbonbioeconomy. An example of such a system is a leach bed reactor connectedto an expanded granular sludge bed (LBR-EGSB) which was designed,commissioned, and conceptually validated in this paper. Several designimprovements progress the LBR-EGSB beyond previous reactor designs.An external gas-liquid-solid separator in the EGSB wasused to capture any residual gases produced by the effluent and mayreduce the amount of methane slippage and biomass washout. The implementationof a siphon-actuated leachate cup is a low-cost alternative that isless prone to actuation malfunction as compared to electrically actuatedsolenoid valves in previous reactor designs. Furthermore, replacingfresh water with distillery's liquid by-products as leachatepromotes a circular repurpose and reuse philosophy. The system provedto be effective in generating VFAs (10.3 g VFAs L-1 (Leachate)), in EGSB COD removal (96%), and in producingmethane-rich biogas (75%(vol)), which is higher than thevalues achieved by traditional anaerobic digestion systems. The LBR-EGSBcould ultimately provide more by-product valorization and decarbonizationopportunities than traditional anaerobic digestion systems for a whiskeydistillery. |
| Author Keywords |
whiskey by-products; circular economy; volatilefatty acid production; biogas; anaerobic digestion |
| Index Keywords |
Index Keywords |
| Document Type |
Other |
| Open Access |
Open Access |
| Source |
Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI) |
| EID |
WOS:001048767800001 |
| WoS Category |
Engineering, Chemical |
| Research Area |
Engineering |
| PDF |
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acsengineeringau.3c00006
|