CODIGESTION OF VINASSE AND PRESS MUD: EFFECT OF THERMAL AND THERMALALKALINE PRE-TREATMENTS ON THE METHANE PRODUCTION POTENTIAL
Brazil is the world's largest producer of the sugar and alcohol sector and it is estimated a considerable growth of the sector for the next years. Increasing production directly represents a greater generation of waste in the sugar and alcohol industry, while requiring greater and better utilization options especially in energy conversion processes. Among the main residues produced, in addition to sugarcane bagasse and straw, are vinasse and press mud, which today are often used for fertigation and soil correction. This work has as main objective to study the potentiality of the energetic recovery of these residues from the optimization of the anaerobic codigestion process, thus obtaining greater stability and productivity of the process. The methane production potentials for different proportions of vinasse / press mud mixture and the effects of thermal and thermoalkaline pretreatments of vinasse with the press mud will be studied, aiming at an increase in methane production potential. Finally, given the best conditions for the co-digestion process, they will be tested in semi-continuous digesters