Biogas and compost from waste

Abstract

The increase in waste associated with population growth is a serious problem in our society. The possibility of biomethanization is an environmentally friendly alternative as it contributes to the processing of hundreds of tons of waste that accumulate in our cities. In Neuquén, the organic fraction of waste reaches 44% and is a potential source of energy. This can be recovered by means of biogas and compost. The methanogenic potential can be measured using the syringe method which has the advantage of being a lowcost experimental procedure. The present work consisted of comparing the amount of biogas generated as a function
of the concentration of total solids. The biogas potential is the volume of product generated by the amount of substrate, in this case, the organic fraction of the waste. The test was carried out using it as a substrate and using the anaerobic lagoon wastewater as inoculum. Syringes of 60 ml at 35 °C were used with substrate concentrations of 5 %, 10 %, 15 %, 20 % and 40 % of total solids of the organic fraction and 10 ml of anaerobic lagoon wastewater inoculum. It was determined that the most favourable condition was for concentrations of 5 % and 20 % total solids. In addition, the preparation of an accelerator for the digestate was evaluated by the zucconi method.