1. Enhancing methane production by anaerobic co-digestion of extruded organic wastes from slaughterhouse and vegetable market in batch and continuous processes
- Author
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Rajan Balakumar, Rengasamy Suthanthararajan, Christopher J. Speier, Velusamy Mozhiarasi, Pious Michealammal Benish Rose, S. V. Srinivasan, and Dirk Weichgrebe
- Subjects
Economics and Econometrics ,Environmental Engineering ,business.industry ,Continuous reactor ,Biodegradable waste ,Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law ,Pulp and paper industry ,General Business, Management and Accounting ,Methane ,Renewable energy ,Anaerobic digestion ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,chemistry ,Biogas ,Environmental Chemistry ,Environmental science ,Industrial and production engineering ,business ,Anaerobic exercise - Abstract
The organic wastes generated from centralized wholesale markets from urban centres are predominantly disposed in dumpsites/landfills. Although anaerobic digestion (AD) of wastes is a promising option for producing bio-fuel, the key barrier is the limitation in the waste conversion efficiency that demands the need for the organic waste pretreatment. Hence, the extrusion pre-treatment of wastes prior to AD of slaughterhouse wastes (ESHW) with mixed vegetable, fruit and flower market wastes (EVMW), from a centralized-wholesale market in an urban area, was studied in batch and continuous AD processes. Batch experiments were carried out in mono- and co-digestion modes of extruded wastes. The results of the batch study revealed maximum specific methane yield of 354.9 mLN/g oDM during anaerobic co-digestion of extruded slaughterhouse wastes with mixed vegetable, fruit and flower market wastes in 1:3 proportion (ESHW/EVMW). Based on these results, lab-scale continuous reactor study (15 L) at varying organic loading rates (OLR) was carried out and the maximum biogas yield of 618.5 mLN/g oDM with a methane content of 62.6% and energy potential of 12.2 MJ/kg DM was obtained for extruded wastes at an OLR of 2.5 g oDM/L/d (E) when compared with non-extruded wastes that showed biogas potential of 503.7 mLN/g oDM (with energy potential of 10.2 MJ/kg DM). The outcome of the study revealed that extrusion pretreatment along with anaerobic co-digestion resulted in an increase in the biogas production therein showing enhancement in green energy production during anaerobic co-treatment of centralized wholesale market and slaughterhouse wastes in urban centres.
- Published
- 2021
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