Loading patent…
AssigneeBoard of Supervisors of Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
InventorsVadake R. Srinivasan, John J. Sansalone
Estimating the term…
A simple, reliable, inexpensive, and efficient anaerobic digester for treating organic wastes at a shortened residence time is described. The anaerobic digester is a multi-chambered digester that can handle wastewater and sludge in a large volume at a high flow rate. The digester also allows collection of methane gas for use as an energy source. The reactor is based on a sequential series of reaction chambers in a design that does not require internal moving parts. The volume of the chambers is adjusted to control the relative residence time of the waste to select an anaerobic microorganism group or groups that can efficiently digest the waste presented to that chamber. Under most conditions, no addition of bacteria is necessary. The digester works efficiently using microbes native to the waste material. After the reaction chambers and just prior to leaving as effluent, a settling chamber is located to reclaim the microbes and remove additional solids. In one embodiment, the reactor comprises four sequential chambers. However, other chamber numbers and geometries will achieve the same result if the residence time in each chamber is properly adjusted. Neither pH nor temperature needed to be controlled. However, for a higher yield of methane, pH may be controlled from about 6 to about 8.
A digester for the digestion of wastewater and sludge organic waste;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.