Biogas recovery from anaerobic digestion process of mixed fruit -vegetable wastes

Anaerobic digestion of a mix of fruit and vegetable wastes has been carried out in a 200-liter digester within 14 weeks. The wastes were anaerobically digested in an anaerobic digester at ambient temperature. The objective of this paper was to study the performance of the anaerobic process used mixed fruit vegetable wastes as substrates in a single stage fed-batch anaerobic digester for biogas production. The feed consisted of mixed fruit-vegetable wastes were collected from a traditional market in Pontianak city. The wastes were taken based on grab sampling method with a composition of +/- 78 % vegetable waste, +/- 4% tuber waste and +/-18% fruit wastes. The total waste weight was 160 kg, mixed manually once in the feeding. Chemical analysis of initial waste and bioreactors slurry was performed using standard methods. The COD of the leacheate was in the range of 7.2-56.4 g/l, pH in the range of 5.3-6.8 and temperature of 28-46 degrees C. The highest methane content in the biogas was 65% with the biogas flow of 20-40 ml/min. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.