Viability of Biogas Production and Determination of Bacterial Kinetics in Anaerobic Co-digestion of Cabbage Waste and Livestock Manure

For the economically depressed communities such as of those in the Canton Guaranda, Ecuador, to generate their own energy, from organic waste is very important because they are sometimes insulated and its gas and electricity supply is very deficient. The aim of this research, was to determine the feasibility of anaerobic co-digestion of wasted cabbage from the town's market in Guaranda, Ecuador, and livestock manure. Two variables were studied: temperature of the process and the percentage of cabbage and livestock manure. Biogas quantity and kinetic parameters were evaluated. Kinetic model were analyzed by minimizing the mean percentage of error between the observed values (measured experimentally) and predicted, using the Runge-Kutta of order 4 for solving the system of differential equations obtained from mass balance. The results showed that a 50-50% ratio cabbage-manure at 30 degrees C temperature gave the highest production of biogas achieved is (389.47cm(3)N/g initial SV) with a composition of 61% methane. The kinetic parameters found were mu(max)=0.1053day(-1); Ks=0.1153mg/l; Y=0.00246g VSS /g COD and K-dec=0.001005day(-1).