Biogas from wastes of pumpkin, marrow and apple.

A lot of vegetables and fruits, which have been grown in Latvia or were imported from foreign countries, become waste, often due to unconformity to the marketing standards or biodegradation process fouling during storage. Waste biomass piles emissions during storage that contributes to global warming. It is appropriate to use such biomass as raw material for anaerobic digestion. This article shows the results of studies on evaluation of suitability of vegetable and fruit waste biomass for the production of biogas. Anaerobic digestion was investigated in 0.75 L digesters, operated in batch mode at a temperature of 38 ± 1.0 °C. The average biogas yield per mass unit of dry organic matter added (DOM) from digestion of pumpkin biomass was 1.095 L g-1DOM and the specific methane yield was 0.422 L g-1DOM. Average biogas yield from digestion of marrow biomass was 0.768 L g-1ODM and the methane yield was 0.274 L g-1DOM. Average biogas yield from digestion of apple biomass was 1.020 L g-1DOM and the methane yield was 0.451 L g-1DOM. All investigated wastes can be a very good source for biogas production. Anaerobic digestion may be a solution to treat waste biomass from food production facilities or supermarkets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]