Abstract
Solid wastes generation is a major problem in Mauritius in terms of wastes disposal with vegetable wastes representing 40–46 % the organic waste stream by mass. This study focused on the anaerobic digestion (AD) of vegetable wastes using biochemical methane potential (BMP) assays to assess the performance of AD processes in treating these wastes in a sustainable manner. 2,000 mL plastic bottles were used as anaerobic digesters for the assays and the vegetable wastes comprising of carrots, potatoes, cabbage and beetroots were ground and seeded with inoculum in a ratio 4:1 (volume basis). The inoculum used was mature sludge taken from an anaerobic digester treating cattle wastes. The inoculated substrates were then fed in the digesters, purged with N2 and sealed with rubber septum. The AD process was allowed to run over a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 20 days. Results showed a total solids (TS) reduction of 62.1 %, volatile solids (VS) reduction of 66.4 % and COD reduction of 64.9 % which demonstrated effective degradation of the substrates during the digestion process. The biogas yield was 0.360 L/g VS fed and this value was in agreement with published data. These results hence showed that vegetable wastes can be effectively treated by AD. The next phases of the study consist in investigating the AD process of wastewater treatment sludge and the effects of sonication on AD of vegetable wastes and sludge, with special emphasis on process parameters.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ackbarally N (2009) Inter Press Service: Hold Your Fire
APHA, AWWA, WPCF (1998) Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, 20th edn. American Public Health Association, Washington
Appels L, Baeyens J, Degreve J, Dewil R (2008) Principles and potential of the anaerobic digestion of waste-activated sludge. Prog Energy Combust Sci 34:755–781
Bouallagui H, Cheikh RB, Marouani L, Hamdi M (2003) Mesophilic biogas production from fruit and vegetable waste in a turbular digester. Bioresour Technol 86(1):85–89
Bougrier C, Albasi C, Delgenes JP, Carriere H (2008) Effects of ultrasonic, thermal and ozone pre-treatments on waste activated sludge solubilisation and anaerobic biodegradability. J Chem Eng Process 45(8):711–718
Chen X, Romano RT, Zhang R (2010) Anaerobic digestion of food wastes for biogas production. Int J Agric Bio Eng 3(4):51–62
Deublein D, Steinhauser A (2008) Biogas from waste and renewable resources: an introduction. Wiley-VCH, Germany
Dewil R, Baeyens J, Goutvrind R (2006) The use of ultrasonics in the treatment of waste activated sludge. Chin J Chem Eng 14(1):105–113
Fantozzi F, Buratti C (2009) Biogas production from different substrates in an experimental continuously stirred tank reactor anaerobic digester. Bioresour Technol 100:5783–5789
Foresti E, Zaiat M, Vallero M (2006) Anaerobic processes as the core technology for sustainable domestic wastewater treatment: consolidated applications, new trends, perspectives and challenges. Rev Environ Sci Biotechnol 5:3–19
Mao T, Hong SY, Show KY, Tay JH, Lee DJ (2004) A comparison of ultrasound treatment on primary and secondary sludges. Water Sci Technol 50(9):91–97
Mohee R, Bhurtun C (2002) Assessing the potential of solid waste energy production for household purposes. In: Domestic use of energy conference 2002
Mohee R, Karagiannidis A, Themelis N, Kontogianni St (2010) The mounting problems with managing wastes in rapidly developing islands: the Mauritius case, In: Third international symposium on energy from biomass and waste, Venice, Italy, 8–11 Nov 2010
Nguyen QH (2008) Sequential dry batch anaerobic digestion of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste. M.Sc. thesis, Asian Institute of Technology
Paepatung N, Nopharatana A, Songkasiri W (2009) Bio-methane potential of biological solid materials and agricultural wastes. Asian J Energ Environ 10(1):19–27
Raposo F, Banks CJ, Siegert I, Heaven S, Borja R (2006) Influence of inoculum to substrate ratio on the biochemical methane potential of maize in batch tests. Process Biochem 41:1444–1450
Show KY, Mao T, Lee DJ (2007) Optimisation of sludge disruption by sonication. Water Res 41:4741–4747
Surroop D (2010) A comparative assessment of municipal solid waste treatment technologies in Mauritius. Ph.D thesis, University of Mauritius
Surroop D, Mohee R (2011) Power generation from refuse derived fuel. In: 2nd international conference on environmental engineering and applications, pp 242–246
Tchobanoglous G, Theisen H, Vigil SA (1993) Integrated solid waste management. Engineering principles and management issues. McGraw-Hill International Editions, Singapore
Velmurugan B, Ramanujam RA (2011) Anaerobic digestion of vegetable wastes for biogas production in a fed-batch reactor. Int J Emerg Sci 1(3):478–486
Ward AJ, Hobbs PJ, Holliman PJ, Jones DL (2008) Optimisation of the anaerobic digestion of agricultural resources. Bioresour Technol 99:7928–7940
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the Mauritius Research Council for their financial assistance for funding and supporting this research study (Ref. No.: N4 2011 0755) and the University of Mauritius for their technical support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Mudhoo, A., Mohee, R., Bundhoo, Z.M., Surroop, D. (2013). Anaerobic Digestion of Vegetable Wastes Using Biochemical Methane Potential Assays. In: Leal Filho, W., Mannke, F., Mohee, R., Schulte, V., Surroop, D. (eds) Climate-Smart Technologies. Climate Change Management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37753-2_34
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37753-2_34
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-37752-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-37753-2
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)