Characterization of Organic Wastes for Biogas Production Suitability

Abstract

This study is conducted on three different organic wastes namely, poultry droppings (PD), water hyacinth (WH), and orange mesocarp (OM) to systematically analyze their properties and behaviors to investigate their suitability for anaerobic co-digestion for effective biogas production. Proximate and ultimate investigation methods were employed to analyze the organic wastes, and certain biological and elemental properties were found in differing fractions. The ultimate analytical method was used to investigate the percentage of hydrogen to be 5.28, 4.13 and 4.89, nitrogen as 3.78, 3.52 and 1.36, carbon to be 48.13, 42.93 and 44.19, sulphur to be 0.58, 0.76 and 0.18, and finally, oxygen as 42.23, 48.66, and 49.38 each for poultry droppings, water hyacinth, and orange mesocarp, respectively, as shown in Table 1 below. In the same vein, proximate analysis was used to check the percentage ash content to be 10.73, 9.26 and 6.83, moisture as 7.18, 64.22 and 9.76, volatile solid to be 70.46, 64.89 and 58.14 and finally, fixed carbon to be 15.77, 13.38 and 11.94 each for poultry droppings, water hyacinth and orange mesocarp, respectively. With respect to the elemental properties, carbon/nitrogen ratios for the three organic wastes were as well determined to be 12.7:1, 12.2:1 and 32.5:1 for poultry droppings, water hyacinth, and orange mesocarp, respectively. This study necessarily precedes the anaerobic co-digestion (AcoD) of the three organic wastes mentioned above in order to check the substrate’s suitability for the production of biogas.