Evaluación técnica, económica y ambiental de una propuesta para la gestión de los residuos sólidos urbanos en Manta, Ecuador.

Solid waste management is essential for the sustainability of the planet, for that, toward it should be the tendency of the researches. The anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction constitutes an attractive process, the results of which show the advantages of phase separation, which allows to optimize acidogenesis and methanogenesis separately and provides high added value products such as hydrogen and others. The objective of this work was to evaluate technically, economically and environmentally an alternative for the management of urban solid waste in Manta, Ecuador from a model that includes recycling processes of the inorganic fraction of the waste, anaerobic digestion in separate phases of the organic fraction and final disposal in a sanitary landfill. The global experimental results show an average removal of total solids (TS) of 58, 24 % with a maximum value of 71,31 %; an average removal of 64,83 % of total volatile solids (STV) with a maximum value of 78,78 %, average yields of hydrogen production of 35 LH2/kg STV feed and methane production of 426 LCH4/kg STV feed. The evaluation by Life Cycle Analysis shows the advantages of the proposed alternative in relation to the current situation of the management of MSW in Manta, with single score values of -7,46 kPt and 15,55 kPt, respectively. The economic analysis reflects the feasibility of the required investment, with a NPV of $ 6 100 987,57 and an TIR of 66 %, which can be recovered in a period of approximately two years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]