Feasibility study of waste (d) potential: co-digestion of organic wastes, synergistic effect and kinetics of biogas production

The present study investigated the synergistic effect of co-digesting food and green waste from institute campus for enhanced biogas production in different ratios in batch tests (37 +/- 1 A degrees C, 90 rpm, 45 days). The results showed that blending improved the biogas production significantly, with highest biogas yield (660 +/- 24 mL g(-1) volatile solids) that was achieved at 75:25 of food and green waste ratio on volatile solids basis. The yield was 1.7- and 1.9-fold higher than the mono-digestion of food and green waste (370 +/- 34; 342 +/- 36 mL g(-1) volatile solids), respectively. The increase in biogas production may be attributed to optimum carbon to nitrogen ratio resulting in higher yield. The addition of TiO2 nanoparticles showed virtually no effect on biogas production. Characterization was carried out to gain an insight of feedstocks. Modified Gompertz and logistics models were applied for kinetic study of biogas production where modified Gompertz model showed goodness of fit (R (2) = 0.9978) with the experimental results.