Optimum Solid Loading Rate for Biogas Production from Agricultural Wastes

Authors : H. Emre AKMAN, Ecehan AKMAN, Asli S. CIGGIN, N. Altınay PERENDECİ, Osman YALDIZ

Pages : 219-224

View : 20 | Download : 9

Publication Date : 2014-06-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :Turkey was the fourth and third largest producer of tomato and pepper from greenhouses, respectively, according to FAO in 2012. The huge amount of agricultural wastes generated from the production of tomato and green pepper are served as renewable sources for energy production via anaerobic digestion insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(AD); For efficiently biogas production, it is essential to determine the operation conditions of AD such as solid loading rate insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(SLR); for target wastes. The aim of this study is to optimize SLR for optimum biogas production from tomato and green pepper wastes. For this purpose, biochemical methane potential tests were carried out at 37 °C with 7% and 15% of SLRs. For supplying the nutritional requirements of AD process, cow manure was also added as a 10% of the selected SLR. As the biogas production from tomato wastes was nearly 75% increased with the increase in SLR from 15% to 7%., the optimum SLR was determined as 7% for anaerobic digestion of tomato wastes. On the other hand, decreasing SLR of pepper waste from 15% to 7% is resulted with only 11% decrease in biogas production. When the energy revenue between the 7% and 15% SLRs is compared with disposal cost of nearly two-fold pepper wastes, suitable SLR for pepper wastes can be suggested as 15%. Consequently, the optimum SLR for anaerobic digestion of tomato and pepper was determined as 7% and 15%, respectively.
Keywords : Agricultural wastes, biochemical methane production, solid loading rate