Chapter 3 - Progress in anaerobic digestion of organic wastes to biomethane

Abstract

The generation of biodegradable organic waste from various sources has become a major concern and affected the environment and climate to a great extent. To utilize these wastes, the anaerobic digestion process is a sustainable technology that decomposes organic waste and converts it into a valuable product such as biogas. In this chapter, the progress in the anaerobic digestion of organic wastes is discussed toward bioenergy and net-zero waste. Various types of organic wastes such as animal waste, food waste, and agricultural residues have been explored based on their categorization with suitable techniques. Different types of anaerobic digestors are also included and further performance of anaerobic digestion is reported in terms of biomethane enhancement. Various parameters such as pH, temperature, hydraulic retention time, microbial community, and moisture content that affect the anaerobic digestion process are described in this chapter. There are still several challenges related to pretreatments and stability of anaerobic digestion, which are reported for further future research directions. However, the anaerobic digestion process can be energy efficient method for the utilization of organic waste for the fulfillment of energy demands and mitigation of adverse effects on the environment.