Two-stage anaerobic digestion of tomato, cucumber, common reed and grass silage in leach-bed reactors and upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors

Anaerobic digestion of tomato, cucumber, common reed and grass silage was studied in four separate two-stage reactor configuration consisting of leach bed reactor (LBR) and upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor (UASB). LBR studies showed that COD solubilization for cucumber and grass silage was higher (50%) than tomato (35%) and common reed (15%). Results also showed that 31–39% of initial TKN present in tomato and cucumber was solubilized in the leachates and 47–54% of the solubilized TKN was converted to NH4-N. The corresponding values for common reed and grass silage were 38–50% and 18–36%, respectively. Biomethanation of the leachates in UASB reactors resulted in methane yields of 0.03–0.14 m3 CH4 kg−1VSfed for the studied crop materials. Thus, high COD solubilization, high nitrogen mineralization and solubilization rates were feasible during anaerobic digestion of lignocellulosic materials in a two-stage LBR–UASB reactor system.