Methane production through anaerobic co-digestion of tropical fruit biomass and urban solid waste

Abstract The objective of the research was to produce biogas by anaerobic co-digestion of biomass and urban solid waste, which made it possible to take advantage of these organic wastes, transforming them into a renewable energy source such as biogas being a fuel with an high calorific on an average of 19.6 to 25 MJ/m3. The methodology consisted of developing different experiments to evaluate the biogas performance in each of the selected biomasses. The percentage of CH4 and CO2 was determined by gas chromatography, from which the following results were obtained: by rinds of, potato (35.64% CH4), papaya (1.64% CH4) , pineapple (0.11% CH4), pea (16.13% CH4), banana (0.39% CH4), bean (0.76% CH4), sugarcane bagasse (80.85% CH4), wet sugarcane bagasse (96.06% CH4), semi-dry sugarcane bagasse (91.39% CH4) and potato peel with sugarcane bagasse (58.74% CH4). After the methane quantification in the different codigestion, the sugarcane bagasse presented better results with a 15% increase in the generation of methane when it was pretreated. Subsequently, we worked with anaerobic biodigesters on a laboratory scale with 500 mL capacity, with a 75% feed (sediment, sugarcane bagasse and 0.75: 1.5: 1.5 water). Propylene bags were used for the storage of biogas, which was quantified over a period of 78 days at ambient conditions, in this period of time it was also possible to determine humidity in experimentation 8 with 55% and in experimentation 9 with 32%, likewise the energy potential where 15.05 was obtained in experimentation 8 and 16, 72 in experimentation 9.