Technical Bulletin No. 0064: Anaerobic Digestion of Strawboard Waste Sludge – Hourly Rate of Gas Production with Various Concentrations of Seed Sludge and with Supplemental Nitroge

The attached report is a summarization of the annual report of the Council’s strawboard waste project conducted at Purdue University by Prof. Don E. Bloodgood of the Department of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. This research has been directed primarily toward means for handling sludge produced from settling strawboard waste since clarification of this waste is not practical unless a means is available for disposing of the sludge. Methane fermentation for destruction of: hydrous and potentially odorous volatile matter is the subject of this report.  After the fermentation a sludge remains which is dewaterable, non-odor producing and of value as a soil conditioner. Efforts to increase fermentation rates in order to bring application costs to a practical level are the object of these  investigations.