Title: Batch anaerobic digestion of simulated Bangladeshi food waste: methane production at different inoculum-to-substrate ratios and kinetic analysis

Authors: Tanziha Tasnim; Shishir Kumar Behera; Mohd. Zafar; Hung-Suck Park

Addresses: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, South Korea ' Chemical Engineering Department, GMR Institute of Technology, Rajam 532127, Srikakulam Dist., A.P., India ' Center for Clean Technology and Resource Recycling, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, South Korea ' Center for Clean Technology and Resource Recycling, University of Ulsan, Ulsan, South Korea

Abstract: This study investigates the anaerobic biodegradation characteristics of a simulated Bangladeshi food waste. Biochemical methane potential experiments carried out in 500 mL batch digesters showed the methane yields of cooked meat, cooked fish, boiled rice, vegetable and mixed food waste (MFW) to be 541, 402, 319, 274 and 484 ml CH₄/gVS, respectively. The biodegradability of 87%, 83%, 75%, 76% and 82% were obtained for cooked meat, cooked fish, boiled rice, vegetable and MFW, respectively. At mesophilic temperature (35°C), a maximum of 484.41 ml CH₄/g VS was observed at an inoculum to substrate ratio (ISR) of 1 followed by 280, 166, 194 and 43 mL CH₄/g VS at ISRs 10, 2, 0.1 and 0.05, respectively. The modified Gompertz model utilised for estimating the kinetic parameters of methane production revealed the maximum methane production rate as 16.02 ml CH₂/g VS.d at an ISR of 1 with lag phase of 3.8 days.

Keywords: food waste; inoculum-to-substrate ratio; ISR; biodegradability; kinetics; Bangladesh; batch anaerobic digestion; simulation; methane production; cooked meat; cooked fish; boiled rice; vegetable waste; mixed food waste; mesophilic temperature; modified Gompertz model.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2016.074310

International Journal of Global Warming, 2016 Vol.9 No.1, pp.95 - 109

Received: 19 Jun 2014
Accepted: 10 Jul 2014
Published online: 22 Jan 2016 *

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