Gianne Gilbert Nismal

University of the Philippines – Visayas

BS Chemical Engineering – IV

Environmental Management Department – On the Job Training

 Function of the receiving lagoons

- The three lagoons located at the EMD is for the storage of the spent wash that is
delivered from the distillery facilities. These three lagoons are connected with
each other for transferring and equalization.

 Function of the Anaerobic Digester feed pump

- The AD feed pump is the one responsible for pumping the spent wash stored in
the lagoon to the AD tanks.

 Function of Lime dosing tank

- The lime dosing tank stores the lime that is added to the AD tanks which is
responsible for the adjustment of the pH where it makes it basic

 Purpose of Anaerobic Digester

- The anaerobic digester is the tank where digestion of spent wash and sludge by
the bacteria takes place in the absence of free oxygen, or anaerobically. This
digestion process produces a biogas that is being utilized in other parts of the
plant

 Function of clarifier
- The lamella clarifier is responsible for the clarifying the biomethanated spent
wash that is taken out of the AD tanks. The foam is separated and cleaned
manually, the overflow is drained below and stored in a pond, and the sludge is
recycled back to the AD tanks

 Function of the flare

- Flare is used to burn excess biogas. Biogas has a foul smell when released to the
atmosphere which isn’t really appealing to the surroundings therefore burning it is
the better option. This is for times when the boiler is shut down and isn’t
accepting biogas as of the moment. The flare is responsible for consuming the
produced biogas in the AD tanks so that pressure will not build up in the tanks
and gas holder. But since the flare can only accommodate a certain rate of biogas,
the feed rate of spent wash the AD tanks are reduced to almost half to also reduce
the biogas production rate. In this way, the rate of flaring and biogas production is
maintained and pressure won’t build up.

 Know how biogas is being fed to the boiler

- Biogas produced from the AD tanks are fed to the boiler through blowers.
Through pressure build up, it pushes itself to the gas holder, a temporary
storage to maintain the rate of biogas feeding. Then, the biogas from the gas
holder is sucked by the air blowers that transport it to the boiler.

 What will happen if there is no biogas feeding to the boiler?

- Less biogas fed to the boiler will increase the rate of consumption of bagasse
in the boiler. No biogas fed will increase it further. The biogas produced in
EMD that is not fed to the boiler is being flared.
 Know the operation of the flare
- Flare operates when some amount of biogas needs to be consumed. Biogas
will travel through a water seal that monitors its pressure. It will then go up to
the flare stock and is ignited through spark ignition system manually. The
biogas will be flared in the flare unit until the desired quality and quantity
required by biogas boiler is achieved. The water seal system is also for safety
purposes for the fire not to travel through the pipes seeking for gas.

 How is the effluent disposed of to the pumphouse?

- The effluent of the lamella clarifier is first transferred to the first lagoon. It is
then pumped and travels through a canal that brings it to the offsite lagoon.
Then, the Socorro pumphouse is responsible for distributing it to different
storage ponds such as the Vasconia, NEFCOR, and Socorro Field.

 Know the operation of the pump house and schedule of irrigation to the fields and
loading of spent wash at NEFCOR
- The pump house is responsible for transporting the contents of the offsite
lagoon to different fields and ponds. It sucks the liquid and pumps it through
the canals that serve as its passage. Vasconia and Socorro fields accepts
depending on the overseer. NEFCOR accepts 24/7 on a 5am-5pm schedule.

 Computation of COD load, %COD Reduction, COD reduced, and Biogas

Production

𝐶𝑂𝐷𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑
𝐶𝑂𝐷𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑 = × 𝑉𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑
1000

𝐶𝑂𝐷𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑 − 𝐶𝑂𝐷𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤
%𝐶𝑂𝐷 𝑅𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 =
𝐶𝑂𝐷𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑

𝐶𝑂𝐷 𝑅𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑒𝑑 = %𝐶𝑂𝐷 𝑅𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 × 𝐶𝑂𝐷𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑

𝐵𝑖𝑜𝑔𝑎𝑠 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 𝐶𝑂𝐷𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑 × %𝐶𝑂𝐷 𝑅𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 × 𝑔. 𝑓.

where, 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟 = 0.45 ~ 0.55