Investigation on the Potential of Biomethane Production from Abattoir Waste by Mono-digestion and Co-digestion

Abstract

This study aimed to examine the potential of abattoir waste in producing bio-methane through mono and co-digestion. The potential of bio-methane production by mono-digestion of blood, cow dung and paunch content as well as the co-digestion of the same substrates was carried out at a ratio of 1:1:1. The digestion process was done using a Bioprocess Automatic Methane Potential Test System (AMPTS II) system at a mesophilic temperature of 37°C. The highest bio-methane yield was recorded in the ternary mixture at 2,178 NmL and for mono-digestion paunch content produced the highest volume of gas at 992 NmL. A volatile solids reduction of 81% was reported in the digestion of paunch content, which was the highest in all reactors. Higher volatile and total solids reduction results in higher biogas yield and blood were observed to have the lowest reduction in volatile and total solids and the lowest bio-methane yield at 518 NmL. A synergic effect with the highest synergic ratio was found in the ternary mixture at 2.95 and the lowest was for a binary mixture of paunch content and cow dung at 1.48. Kinetic analysis showed that the quadratic model was the best fit for the data compared to the linear model for both the mono and co-digested substrates.