Studies on biomethanation of vegetable market waste

Abstract

Large amounts of vegetable waste are produced and are consequently interesting as a raw material for generating biogas. The problem chiefly lies in finding a useful, i.e. primarily economically efficient, design for a reactor. To pursue this matter further, two processes were compared with each other: the batch process, in which leafy waste is directly fermented, and soaking the waste by spraying (5 and 30 l of water per 35 kg waste), after which only the drained water is fermented. A comparison of Tables 2 and 3 a/b clearly shows that spraying with a small amount of water produces the best fermentation results. A solution for practical use is to be gained from research in this direction. (orig.)