Evaluation of Methane Production from Anaerobic Digestion of Different Agro-industrial Wastes

The production of methane via anaerobic digestion of biomass, such as energy crops, agro-industrial wastes and OFMSW, would provide a clean fuel from renewable feedstock and would replace the fossil fuel derived energy. Because of this, the prediction of methane yield (as regards to gas volume and rate of production) of residual and waste materials is gaining increasing interest. The biochemical methane potential (BMP) test is widely used for anaerobic process feasibility and design purpose, providing information about the biodegradability of high solid content substrates. In this work, methane yield coefficients and first-order disintegration rates for five different substrates (apple waste, brewery spent grain, brewery yeast waste, maize silage and red chicories waste) are evaluated. BMP tests are performed in 5 L fed-batch stirred reactors at several inoculum/substrate ratios. All runs are performed without the addition of chemicals.