An application of anaerobic baffled reactor to produce biogas from kitchen waste

The tremendous increase in solid waste generation is an unavoidable occurrence
due to the fast growing urbanisation and industrialisation in Malaysia. Anaerobic
digestion of organic wastes is receiving more attention in recent years throughout
the world because the biomethanogenesis process decomposes organic matter to
produce methane gas, which is an excellent energy source as fuel in combined
heat and power units. In this study an application of an Anaerobic Baffled
Reactor (ABR) for the production of biogas from kitchen waste was carried out
to identify the optimum efficiency of methane gas generation and the potential
usage of sludge as organic fertiliser. Different proportions of kitchen waste and
activated sewage sludge were mixed and tested in the reactor to achieve the best
amount of methane production in the shortest time. Results showed that the
combination of 75% of kitchen waste and 25% of activated sewage sludge
presented as the best result, which was 74.1% of methane gas. Further,
determination for fertiliser value from tests on the sludge in the reactor showed
its potential for future use in composting. The amounts of N, P and K were 0.95,
0.80 and 0.45% respectively. According to the observation, anaerobic digestion
of kitchen waste in the ABR is able to provide a vital element in an integrated
solid waste management and the energy production from this system could be a
good reason for many communities to start recycling valuable resources, and
hence achieving zero waste production.