Leaching Characteristics of Poultry Litter in First Phase of Multistage Anaerobic Digestion

Poultry litter is highly biodegradable in nature. Therefore, it could be subjected to biomethanation to produce valuable biogas and bio-manure as byproducts. Some studies have been conducted along these lines in India by utilizing the poultry litter as a substrate in batch type dung digesters of KVIC and DENABANDHU models. However, these reactors have the drawbacks of high residence time (30 – 35 days), scum formation problems etc. Moreover, these batch type plants are not suitable for the treatment of large quantities of solid waste. Multistage anaerobic digestion has the potential to overcome some of the aforesaid issues. Anaerobic leaching experiments were conducted at different total solids concentration and pH using poultry litter in order to evaluate the leachate quality for a period of 7 days. The increase in Total solids (TS) % from 15 to 20% show inverse effect on VFA and Alkalinity. The change in pH from 8.5 to 5.5 didn’t show much impact on VFA but there is a small impact on alkalinity. It was also observed that the leaching of the organic matter in the solid to the liquid phase is very fast and it is taking place approximately in three to four days and subsequently leachate getting saturated. Therefore, reactor set up was made in the last phase to regularly remove the water from the reactor so that higher driving force is available for leaching. The study resulted in leaching of maximum organic content in the solid to liquid within three days.