Bio-reserves inventory-improving substrate management for anaerobic waste treatment in a fast-growing Indian urban city, Chennai.

Abstract

India is one among the Asia's newly industrialized countries, in which urban centres generate large amount of municipal solid wastes due to the rapid urbanization. To demonstrate urban waste potentials for biogas production by anaerobic digestion, a comprehensive analysis on the availability of organic waste hotspots and its biogas potential for the exemplary case of Chennai, India, was undertaken. The identified hotspots and their biogas potential were plotted with Geographical Information System as thematic maps. The results of biogas potential tests revealed strong variations in the biogas potentials of individual waste streams from 240.2 to 514.2mLN/g oDM (organic dry matter) with oDM reduction in the range of 36.4-61.5wt.-%. Major waste generation hotspots were identified from the surveyed urban bio-reserves and the biogas potentials within an effective area of 5km radius surrounding the hotspot were estimated. It was found that the biogas potential of individual hotspots ranged between 38.0-5938.7m3/day. Further results revealed that the biogas potential during anaerobic co-digestion, by considering nearby bio-reserves in the effective areas of major hotspots, with and without residential organic waste, ranged between 4110.4-18-106.1m3/day and 253.2-5969.5m3/day, originating from 144.0-620.0tons and 3.1-170.5tons, respectively. Despite variations in the composition of the wastes, the Carbon/Nitrogen ratio, oDM reduction, biogas production and substrate availability were improved during co-digestion of nearby bio-reserves within the major hotspots, thereby improving the prevailing barriers in substrate management during anaerobic digestion of wastes.