Performance Characteristics of a Pilot Anaerobic Digester Fed by Farmer’s Market Wastes

Abstract

In this study, anaerobic digestion of farmer’s market waste was studied in the long run and the monitoring of operating parameters is reported to provide detailed operational data for field applications. A continuous feeding of farmer’s market wastes with a dry matter of 5% for 160 days were carried out using a 100 L pilot scale CSTR type anaerobic digester under mesophilic operation conditions. Hydraulic retention time (HRT) and organic loading rate (OLR) were kept around 30 days and less than 3.0 kg oDM/m3.day, respectively. During the 160 days feeding period, daily and volumetric biogas production values were reported to be 20-146 L/day and 0.3-2.0 L/L/day, respectively. This corresponds to an average biogas production 535 L/kg oDM, which means that between 40 and 100 m3 of biogas per wet ton of farmer’s market waste could be produced. In conclusion, this study provides a representative operational data for field application of anaerobic digester running on farmer’s market (mostly fruit and vegetables).