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Field performance of small scale anaerobic digesters treating food waste
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Field performance of small scale anaerobic digesters treating food waste

X.F. Lou, J. Nair and G. Ho
Energy for Sustainable Development, Vol.16(4), pp.509-514
2012
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Abstract

Internationally, it has been reported to have over 30 million small scale anaerobic digesters. Despite the large number of existing small scale anaerobic digesters and a growing interest in food waste digestion, there has been a paucity of research regarding low cost digester's performance. This paper aims to provide a snap shot of the performances of small scale digesters treating food waste exclusively. The performance of six small scale digesters, ranging from 1m 3 to 25m 3 were recorded and analysed. Results showed consistently high substrate degradation ranging from 92.5% to 97.5% COD with daily methane production ranging between 0.25m 3/kg VS and 0.46m 3/kg VS. Composition of biogas analyzed yielded between 63.1%-66.8% CH 4 and between 27.4%-33.3% CO 2. Results also revealed a negative linear correlation between gas production and % total solids and a positive linear correlation between gas production and the organic loading rate. While small scale digesters can effectively degrade food waste; the total dependency on digester for their gas requirements is unlikely and alternative fuel source is required.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#6 Clean Water and Sanitation
#7 Affordable and Clean Energy
#12 Responsible Consumption & Production

Source: InCites

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InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Citation topics
3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology
3.83 Bioengineering
3.83.416 Anaerobic Digestion
Web Of Science research areas
Energy & Fuels
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
ESI research areas
Engineering
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