Biofilter with high methane oxidation efficiency in agriculture and waste treatment

Project description

Methane (CH₄) is a highly effective climate gas with a greenhouse potential approx. 25 times higher than carbon dioxide (CO₂). Efforts are therefore being made to reduce methane sources. A large proportion of these methane sources worldwide are agriculture (about 11 %), especially livestock farming, and mechanical-biological waste treatment (MBT). The emission of methane is regulated by law in some federal states of Germany. The overall objective of the joint project “Biofilter with high methane oxidation efficiency in agriculture and waste treatment” is to develop a biofilter/scrubber for biological waste gas purification, with which methane emissions from agriculture and waste management can be reduced.

The task of the sub-project at our institute is to characterize potentially suitable biofilter and bioscrubber materials physically, chemically and biologically, to test their methane oxidation potential on a laboratory scale and to determine the optimal milieu conditions. A special feature here are the preconditions in the biofilters, which are already used in agriculture to remove ammonia, odour and dust. In a downstream biological oxidation stage, methane is to be converted by bacteria at very low methane concentrations and at the same time high exhaust air volume flows. Under these conditions, however, methane oxidation has been little studied so far. In addition to the search for the suitable carrier material and growth conditions for the methane oxidants, the composition of the microorganism community is also characterized.

Publications

• Liu, F., Wienke, C., Fiencke, C., Guo, J., Dong, R., Pfeiffer, E.-M., 2018. Biofilter with mixture of pine bark and expanded clay as packing material for methane treatment in lab-scale experiment and field-scale implementation. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 25, 31297-31306. doi: 10.1007/s11356-018-3102-z
• Liu, F., Fiencke, C., Guo, J., Rieth, R., Cuhls, C., Dong, R., Pfeiffer, E.-M., 2017. Performance evaluation and optimization of field-scale bioscrubbers for intensive pig house exhaust air treatment in northern Germany. Science of the Total Environment, 579, 694-701. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.11.039
• Liu, F., Fiencke, C., Guo, J., Rieth, R., Cuhls, C., Dong, R., Pfeiffer, E.-M., 2017. Bioscrubber treatment of exhaust air from intensive pig production: Case study in northern Germany at mild climate condition. Engineering in Life Sciences, 17, 458-466. doi: 10.1002/elsc.201600169
• Liu, F., 2019: Climate change control: Optimise the remediation of greenhouse gases in bioscrubber and biofilter systems. Dissertation [Ph.D. thesis] Universität Hamburg, Institute of Soil Science.
• Wienke, C., 2017: Optimierung der mikrobiellen Methanoxidation auf verschiedenen Biofiltermaterialien, zur Reduzierung des klimarelevanten Spurengases Methan, für den Einsatz im Biofilter einer mechanisch-biologischen Abfallbehandlungsanlage. Dissertation [Ph.D. thesis] Universität Hamburg, Institut für Bodenkunde (in German). Hamburger Bodenkundliche Arbeiten 88, 163 S.

Theses

• MSc: Marcel Burmeister, Marc Kurzbuch (TU Braunschweig), Nils Mewes
• BSc: Julia Glatzel, Adrian Richter, Leonie Ruffert (Uni Düsseldorf), Christin Woodford

Cooperation partners

• gewitra: Ingenieurgesellschaft für Wissentransfer mbH, Müllheimer Str. 26, 53840 Troisdorf
• MBA Neumünster GmbH, Bismarckstr. 51, 24534 Neumünster
• RIMU Lüftungstechnik, Messerschmittring 19, 86343 Königsbrunn
• CAU: China Agricultural University, East Campus, Boc 184, Qinghuadonglu 17, Haidan District, Beijing 100083, P.R. China

Employees at the Institute of Soil Science

• Engineer: Wilfried Gläseker (retired)