Development of anaerobic consortia and its invitro evaluation for biomethanation potential of coffee processing wastes

An anaerobic consortia was prepared by using Clostridium strains already screened for biocatalytic ability to degrade cellulose, pectin and tannins together with Methanosarcina sp. Among the two inoculum sources studied, the reactor having anaerobic consortium could ferment coffee pulp waste (CPW) and coffee processing waste water (CPWW) leading to 67% soild removal, 62.27% pectin, 27.4% tannins, 63.52% cellulose and 60% hemicellulose reduction. This resulted in total biogas production of 0.017 m3 over a period of eight weeks and highest methane content of 65% at 6th week when compared to cow-dung slurry. The bioenergy obtained was converted into electricity units saving 27.2% of power consumption with anaerobic consortium for a small scale coffee processing unit generating 5 ton of coffee pulp waste. This study indicates that anaerobic consortium with efficient microbial strains appeared to be a promising technology for mitigating the present problems caused by coffee processing wastes.   Key words: Anaerobic consortium, biogas, methane, total solids (TS) removal, biopolymers.