Journal of Environmental Biology

Solid state biomethanation of fruit wastes

J. Rajesh Banu³, Essaki Raj¹,  S. Kaliappan¹, Dieter Beck² and Ick-Tae Yeom*¹

*yeom@skku.ac.kr

¹Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University, Chennai-600 025, India

²Indo German Project, Centre for Environmental Studies, Anna University, Chennai-600 025

³Civil and Environmental Engineering, Center for Zero Emission Technology, Sungkyunkwan University,

Chunchun-dongJangan-gu-440-746 Suwon-Si, Korea

(Received: November 19, 2005 ; Revised received: April 22, 2006 ; Accepted: June 06, 2006)

Abstract: Over tones of fruit wastes accumulate daily in the city of Chennai, India and there is an urgent need to develop, assess and use ecofriendly methods to dispose them. Presently, an attempt has been made to study solid state biomethanation of fruit wastes using a laboratory scale anaerobic digester. Fruit wastes containing 3%, 4% and 5% solids were used for experimentation. Daily and cumulative production of biogas produced during the study was recorded. Increase in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content in the feed was observed during the digestion. During the study, the biogas generation increased with increase in total solids. While the gas generation was 0.006 m³/day/m³ of the reactor volume when the solid content was 3% the corresponding values for 4% and 5% solids were 0.27 and 0.35 m³ respectively. Varying TS 3% to 4% has no effect on fermentation stability and pH remained between 6.8 and 7.4, but an inhibition of methanogenic bacteria was observed for TS 5%. The overall performance of the reactor was depressed by changing feed concentration from 3% to 5%. Experiments with 4% initial solid contend was ideal for solid-state biomethanation.

Key words:   Biomethanation, Fruit wastes, Total solid, Biogas composition

Copyright © 2007 Triveni Enterprises. All rights reserved. No part of the Journal can be reproduced in any form without prior permission. Responsibility regarding the authenticity of the data, and the acceptability of the conclusions enforced or derived, rest completely with the author(s).