Co-digestion of FOG with municipal biosolids at a

rate of 1030% FOG by volume of total digester

feed caused a 3080% increase in digester gas
production in two full scale wastewater biosolids
anaerobic digesters
anaerobic digestion of high lipid wastes has been
reported to cause inhibition of acetoclastic and
methanogenic bacteria, substrate, and product
transport limitation, sludge flotation, digester
foaming, blockages of pipes and pumps, and
clogging of gas collection and handling systems.
the activated sludge process
(Crawford and Sandino, 2010). Fat, oil, and
grease (FOG) collected from the food service
industry has been cited to
increase biogas production by 30% or more when
added
directly to the anaerobic digester
FOG is a term commonly used to define the layer
of lipidrich material from wastewater generated
during cooking and
food processing.
determined that there
is an average of 18.7 gallons of GTW/person/year
when considering the entire contents of the
grease abatement device
(70.6 L GTW/person/year)

GTW disposal options may include land

application, landfilling, composting, rendering for
manufacturing lubricants or industrial soaps,
incineration,
anaerobic co-digestion, or biodiesel production
GTW has a high biochemical oxygen demand, a
large fraction of lipids, and contains roughly
700010,000 BTUs/pound
(4.56.5 kW h/kg) when dewatered
However FOG was found to account
for approximately only 015% by volume of GTW
with an average of about 23%.
FOG from GTW has high free fatty acid content,
which
may require an additional acid catalyzed
pretreatment step
in addition to the typical alkaline catalyzed
transesterification of triglycerides for
biodiesel production
the minimal pretreatment requirements of
anaerobic co-digestion may make it a better
disposal option than incineration or biodiesel
production
There are still numerous operational concerns in
implementing anaerobic co-digestion of GTW with
primary and secondary sludge. Of these
operational concerns, the inhibition of methane

generation as a result of FOG or its derivatives is

one of the most common
Though enhanced biogas production during
anaerobic co-digestion of FOG has been
frequently reported in recent years, there has
been no discussion of inhibition concerns or the
potential for inhibition during anaerobic codigestion
GTW typically forms three layers within the
grease abatement device; top floatable layer
(primarily FOG), middle
aqueous layer (organic rich wastewater) and
bottom sludge
layer (food particles and other settleable solids)
the primary component of FOG, are degraded
anaerobically via the -oxidation pathway to
acetate and H2, which
are subsequently converted to methane.
-oxidation begins
when the fatty acid is activated with coenzyme A
and the
resulting oxidation leads to the release of acetylCoA and the
formation of a fatty acid chain, which is
shortened by two carbons. Acetyl-CoA is oxidized
by way of the citric acid cycle and
the process of -oxidation is repeated (Madigan et
al., 2006).
The following reaction expresses the degradation
of long chain

fatty acids via the -oxidation pathway.

CH3(CH2)nCOOH + 2H2O CH3(CH2)n2COOH
+ CH3COOH + 2H2
One concern with anaerobic co-digestion is that
long
chain fatty acids (LCFA) may have a detrimental
effect on
methanogenic bacteria when introduced at
sufficiently high
concentrations or loading rates
Researchers have suggested that the detrimental
effect
on methanogenic bacteria may be due to:
sludge flotation and
washout
transport limitation from bacteria being coated
in a layer of LCFAs thereby hindering the cells
access to substrates and its ability to release
biogas
trates and its ability to release biogas ; or a LCFA
toxicity
effect on methanogenic bacteria..