Simultaneous electricity and biogas generation of vinasses and cattle manure

A new design for the simultaneous generation of electricity and biogas was constructed. The voltage production in a microbial fuel cell and the biogas generation through anaerobic digestion were tested at different concentrations of mezcal vinasses and cattle manure. When comparting the control test with the concentrations using vinasses, these resulted in inhibition of voltage output. On the contrary, if no vinasses were used, no biogas production took place, revealing that the inoculum did not have activity itself. The concentration with the lowest organic matter content showed the poorest AD efficiency and lowest voltage output. By increasing the organic matter, power density increased until a certain limit. Contrary to the effect of organic matter content on the voltage production, biogas yield and methane content increased with increased organic matter. These results show that the combination of these technologies is not suitable for the simultaneous voltage production and biogas generation.