Investigation of the Energy (Biogas) Derivation from Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste Products

This study was carried out to determine the derivative energy (biogas) from different food waste substrates. A fixed mass (5kg) of different food substrates and distilled water (5kg) were anaerobically digested in the ratio of 1:1, and their derivable energy were measured respectively for raw and purified biogas. Food substrates used for the process includes Beans, Rice, Yam, Fufu, Ripe Plantain, Garri, Corn, Unripe Plantain, Sweet Potatoes, Ripe Banana, Pineapple and Water Melon, but Garri yielded the highest raw biogas of 140g and highest purified biogas of 110g. This was followed by Fufu and Yam which yielded raw biogas of 120g and purified biogas of 90g. Among the aforementioned substrates digested, Sweet potatoes had the lowest raw biogas yield of 70g with the lowest purified biogas yield of 50g. It was observed that pH of feedstocks before digestion varied between 6.8 and 7.1, whereas, pH of the same feedstocks after digestion varied between 5.1 and 6.3, indicating that the by-product can be useful as a valuable product for compost manure after biogas recovery. Hence, this study has shown that biogas can be produced from different food waste, but some food waste has a higher biogas energy potential than other food waste