Assessment of Biological Degradability of the Waste Produced by Food Industry

Abstract Organic waste from production processes is unutilised potential for the production of energy from renewable sources. The submitted paper studies the conditions of anaerobic degradation of selected waste from food industry (diary and distillery) when biogas is produced. Both types of organic waste have low pH values. Ash form municipal incineration as a material for the treatment of pH of waste was used. Except for the pH increase during anaerobic degradation, ash also serves as a source of macroelements for inoculum microorganisms. Kinetics of anaerobic biological digestion of organic material based on the change of pressure and biogas production depending on the ash addition (change of pH) of input samples was observed. Beside these tests, degradability of the waste was assessed by limiting biologically degradable ratio, BR and specific speed of degradability, q. pH values were adjusted with different amounts of ash (0.5; 1.8; 2.7 g/g of dry matter of organic material). Results of the research confirmed that the addition of optimum amount of ash has a positive effect on anaerobic degradation of organic materials.