Assessment of the biogas potential from agricultural waste in northern Thailand

In 2014-2015, there was approximately 26,823.44 x106 kg of the residue leftover from agricultural products in Northern Thailand and roughly 18,943.57x106 kg or 70.62% were left unutilized. The aim of this research was to survey and calculate the proportion of agricultural area and products as well as their corresponding waste towards potential of biogas production using biochemical methane potential (BMP) method. The results showed that rice straw was the most promising feedstock for methane production with the highest biogas yield of 363 mlN /gVSadded followed by sugarcane leaves and corn cob having 333 and 318 mlN/gVSadded, respectively. Additionally, the predicted areas for growing rice and corn decreased. Meanwhile areas for growing cassava, sugarcane and oil palm increase slightly. This study also found out that the unused agricultural waste generation was decreased due to improved waste utilization.