Enhance biogas production from anaerobic reactor using combination activated carbon and zeolite as media for ammonia removal

High Concentration of ammonia inhibit biogas production in anaerobic reactor. Combination of activated carbon and zeolite was developed in this present study to mitigate ammonia concentration in anaerobic wastewater treatment. Five types of combination ratio between activated carbon and zeolite, 100:0, 0:100, 50:50; 25:75; 75:25 were used for Total Ammonia Nitrogen (TAN) removal. The effect of those combination was evaluated in 15 d batch experiment. Every 3 d, sample was taken from reactor and repeated three times. This research used 1 l dairy milk simulated wastewater and 20g of total mass of adsorbent. Characteristic of wastewater and each media; TAN removal performance; simple kinetic study; pseudo kinetic and diffusion model; were conducted in this research. Result showed Surface area and volume pores of zeolite were higher than activated carbon. The highest TAN reduction reached 318 mg/L by combination 50:50 for activated carbon and zeolite. Biogas production increased significantly in reactor contain activated carbon and zeolite rather than without media. After 15 d incubation time, reactor contain 500 mg/L of TAN produced 0.015 cm³ in anaerobic reactor without media, other while in anaerobic reactor with media produced 0.055 cm3 of biogas. TAN concentration below 500 mg/L more favorable for produced biogas than up to 500 mg/L.