Production of biogas using food waste

Abstract

As the world population is growing every year solid waste generation also increases. Every year around 1.2 billion tones of solid waste is generatedin which 60 to70% of waste is food waste which goes into landfill. The food waste contains high organic resource, which can utilize the for the generation of renewable energy sources. Biogas is one of the valuable energy resource which usually contains components like methane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide which is harmful for environment. Anaerobic digestion is a method to produce biogas efficiently. In the absence of oxygen anaerobic digestion takes by the help of anaerobic bacteria. This research work was focused on the generation of biogas from kitchen waste generated in the AIKTC campus. Most of the waste collected from Engineering canteen which contains fresh food waste along vegetables and fruit peels. Kitchen (food) waste will be collected from two canteens of AIKTC as feedstock for the reactor which works as anaerobic digester system to produce biogas energy. The experiments were carried out in a two type of anaerobic digester with and without cowdunk. Parameters like pH and biogas production was measured. At an average 4300 ml of gas was generated in the tube in three days. In AIKTC, there are two canteens, and both having their own individual mess, where daily about 20 kg of kitchen waste is obtained which can be utilized for bioreactor. Both bioreactor study provided biogas however the generation rate is very good in the reactor with cow dunk. Keywords: Anaerobic Digestion, Biogas, Food Waste, Methane