Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Faecal Sludge and Banana Peels.

Abstract

The abundance of agricultural wastes produced from banana peels and human waste from households has resulted in the difficulties of disposing of large amounts of waste. Anaerobic digestion is a way to reduce waste and generate renewable energy sources including biogas. In this study, banana peels were co-digested with faecal sludge in batch experiments under ambient temperature at 25±5°C at a working volume of 18 liters in 20 liters reactors. The effects of different substrate mix ratios on methane yields were investigated. The batch study was conducted at 8% VS at three different substrate ratio faecal sludge to banana peels (FS: BP) (1:1, 1:2 and 1:3) and a control (1:0). Overall biogas collection at 1:3 ratio of FS:BP resulted into the highest biogas production of 26 liters, followed by 1:3 ratio (C2) with 930 ml biogas yield. The highest methane yield was achieved with reactor C2 of 1:3 ratio (15.21 CH4/g VS). In conclusion, the production of methane from pineapple wastes co-digested with cow dung was proven to be a good strategy to minimize solid wastes mainly pineapple waste.