Biogas recovery from different composition of food waste using anaerobic digestion technique

Nowadays, extensive studies in anaerobic digestion have been carried out for recovering resources from waste. In this study, food waste is used as anaerobic digestion substrates because of the abundant availability of waste. Improper waste disposal technique has contributed to environmental problems. At the same time, despite being dependent on fossil fuels as an energy source. Biogas, which is produced through the anaerobic digestion process can be used as a renewable energy source. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate biogas recovery through the anaerobic digestion technique. The biogas recovery was performed using an anaerobic batch digester at mesophilic (35° C± 1) condition and pH was controlled at 6.8 to 7.2 for 10 days Food waste was segregated into different compositions namely carbohydrates rich-food waste, fiber rich-food waste, and protein rich-food waste. Sludge collected from the pond was used as the inoculum to boost up the anaerobic digestion process. The results showed carbohydrate-rich food waste recover the highest biogas with 66mL ± (0.01) in 3 days of digestion, followed by protein-rich food waste 40 mL ± (0.05) (Day 5) and fiber-rich food waste 27 mL ± (0.02) (Day 6), respectively. The difference in values could be due to higher volatile solid content in carbohydrate-rich food waste (98.9%) compared to protein-rich food waste (94.4%) and fiber-rich food waste (82.9%), respectively. Moreover, this study also provides information on a new strategy used in recovering biogas.