Title: Towards sustainable agricultural waste management: reuse and energy recovery alternatives for biomass

Authors: B. Aylin Alagoz; Orhan Yenigun; Aysen Erdincler

Addresses: Institute of Environmental Sciences, Boğaziçi University, 34342, Bebek, Istanbul, Turkey ' Institute of Environmental Sciences, Boğaziçi University, 34342, Bebek, Istanbul, Turkey ' Institute of Environmental Sciences, Boğaziçi University, 34342, Bebek, Istanbul, Turkey

Abstract: This research investigated the anaerobic co-digestion of several agricultural biomass (nutshell, potato peels, olive bagasse and grass) with wastewater sludges to produce biogas. The applied co-digestion process successfully resulted in improved biogas/methane yields compared to single sludge digestion and appeared to be an energy-efficient disposal alternative for sludges and agricultural residues. The highest biogas yield was obtained from wastewater sludges and grass co-digestion to be 0.58 L/gVS_degraded, where the biogas yield from single sludge digestion was 0.24 L/gVS_degraded. Being compatible with grass, the obtained biogas yields from the co-digestion with agricultural residues were almost 2.5 times higher than single sludge digestion.

Keywords: agro-wastes; anaerobic co-digestion; biomass; biogas production; energy crop; methane yield; renewable energy; wastewater sludges.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2021.112893

International Journal of Global Warming, 2021 Vol.23 No.2, pp.138 - 150

Received: 10 Apr 2020
Accepted: 10 Apr 2020
Published online: 08 Feb 2021 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article