Dass Rasayanic Services

Project- Waste to
energy
Anaerobic digestion of organic content of waste and generation of
Methane gas for Generation of energy

10-13

Project- Waste to energy

Introduction- In recent years due to rise in demand and cost of fuels and
increased pollution, the whole world is now creating a renewed interest for the
implementation of renewable energy system and it has become an attractive
alternative for fossil fuels across the globe.
India stands second in the production of Fruits and Vegetables in the world. It
contributes about 10 and 14% of Fruit and Vegetable in the world production.
(Source: H.R.Gautam, Science tech Enterpreneur, Jan.2007)
Vegetable Wastes are created during harvesting, transportation, storage, marketing
and processing. Due to their nature and composition, they deteriorate easily and
cause foul smell. According to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the
estimated Fruit and Vegetable wastes percentage for each commodity group in each
step of the food supply chain are 15, 9, 25, 10 and 7% in agricultural production,
post-harvest handling and storage, processing and packaging, distribution and
consumption respectively in South and South-East Asia. (Source: Global Food Losses
and Food Waste: Extent, Causes and Prevention', FAO, 2011)

Indian Agricultural Research Data Book 2004 showed the estimated production of
fruits and vegetables in India at 150 million tones and the total waste generated at
50 million tons per annum i.e., 30% of the estimated production of Fruits and
Vegetables.
Chandigarh is among one of the nations most planned, developed and populated
city. It plays important role in nations economy.
Parameters
Area
Longitude
Latitude
Altitude

Values
114 sq kms
760 47' 14E
300 44' 14N
304-365 meters above MSL with
1% drainage gradient

Temperature

Winter Min. (Nov.-Jan, 2006) 10 C-160 C

Total Population (2001 census)

Summer Max. (April-July, 2004) 270C-440C

9,00,635 (Rural population-92120 (10.2%)

Density of population/sq. km.

Literacy Rate
(Source: www.chandigrah.gov.in)

(Urban population-808515 (89.8%)

7,900
81.9%

The sabjimandi situated at Chandigarh are among the Indias biggest

sabjimandis.Annually around 3.5 lakh registered farmers comes there to do
business there (according to Progress Report Apni Mandi, by Punjab Mandi Board).
Around 60% to 70% of total products from there are dispatched outside the market

daily. Out of all these products (fruits, vegetable, crops etc.) consumed daily, 20tons
per day of the waste is generated there, out of which 70% to 80% is the organic
content. Thus the higher moisture and organic loading content in these wastes can
be utilized in biological treatment like anaerobic digestion other than techniques like
incineration and composting.
Method ProposedAnaerobic digestion of organic content of waste and generation of Methane gas for
Generation of energy
What is anaerobic digestion?
Anaerobic digestion is the biological degradation by a complex microbial ecosystem
of organic and occasionally inorganic substrates in the absence of an organic
source.
Vegetable wastes generated largely in markets were disposed in municipal landfill
or dumping sites. Bioconversion processes are suitable for wastes containing
moisture content above 50% than the thermo- conversion processes. Vegetable
wastes, due to high biodegradability nature and high moisture content (75 90%)
seemed to be a good substrate for bio-energy recovery through anaerobic digestion
process.( source: B.Velmurugan and R.Alwar Ramanujam, Anaerobic Digestion of Vegetable Wastes for
Biogas Production in a Fed-Batch Reactor, Sep.2011)
Thus the vegetable waste can go through the anaerobic digestion process and as
the bi product of that process the biogas is obtained. The biogas produced is
consists of many gases such as Methane, Carbon di oxide etc.
Composition of Biogas
Gaseous Component
CH4
CO2
H2
H2S
Other gases

Percentage
40-70
30-60
0-1
0-3
1-5

There are different types of reactors used for the Bioenergy recovery from solid
wastes and waste water. They include batch reactors, one stage reactors and two
stage reactors. In batch reactors, wastes are fed in to the system and all the
degradation steps are allowed to follow sequentially. It is one time feed, i.e. after all
the feed is converted to products, fresh feed will be added to the reactors. More
retention time is required for these types of reactors for complete conversion into
products. In one stage systems, all the reactions simultaneously take place in a
single reactor. One stage systems are commonly preferred for full scale anaerobic
digestion of organic solid wastes in the world. One stage systems are preferred than
the batch and two stage systems because of their easier and simpler designs and
low in investment costs. In two stage systems, two different reactors are used for

acidogenesis and methanogenesis. .( source: B.Velmurugan and R.Alwar

Ramanujam, Anaerobic Digestion of Vegetable Wastes for Biogas Production in a
Fed-Batch Reactor, Sep.2011)

Characteristics of Food and Vegetable WasteThe vegetable waste possess certain characteristics such as density, size
distribution of components, moisture (water content can change chemical and
physical properties), volatile matter, ash, fixed carbon, fusing point of ash, calorific
value, percent of carbon, Hydrogen, oxygen, sulphur and ash.
Some of them are tabled below:
Parameter
Values
pH
Around 5.5
Carbon (kg)
2.40
Nitrogen (kg)
0.13
Ash(kg)
0.26
The organic fraction of fruit and vegetable waste typically contains about 75% sugar
and hemicelluloses, 9% celluloses and 5% lignin (Source: Y.Jiang, S.Heaven,
C.J.Banks, Strategies for stable anaerobic digestion of vegetable waste , Jan.2012)
Expected technological Challenges1. Handling of Waste: At sabjimandi, a lot of merchants or farmers come to
do their business. As a result of that the waste produced there is very much
littered and scattered. To collect around 20 tons of waste at a single point
daily is really challenging task. In order to tackle this challenge a good
collection system is required with quite trained team of people, so that they
can do it quite effectively.
2. Segregation of Waste: After collection of the waste it is important to
segregate them properly. As the waste generated from the Mandi contains
various kind of waste else than organic one.
Content of generated and collected from sabjimandi
Glass
Metals (Ferrous/Non Ferrous)
Plastics
Rubber Tubes/ Types
Oil/Grease
Organic Matter
Soil and Special Waste
Paper and Card Board
Out of all these waste, the organic one is need to be segregated and separated
out. Since the inorganic waste is difficult to decompose. The organic waste
consists of waste of many fruits, vegetables, crops, their cellulose, some of
them may be highly putrescible and some may be highly combustible. So for
segregation of waste a proper system is required which can do it quite
effectively.
3. Lower pH value: The vegetable waste has a lower pH value, thus it can be
a problem as due to lower pH value, during the anaerobic digestion,

vegetable waste gets acidified rapidly and results in formation of volatile fatty
acids. For controlling this, Preliminary treatment is required to minimize the
organic loading rate, and hence aerobic process is not to be preferred for
vegetable waste. The rate limiting step in vegetable wastes is done by
methanogenesis rather than hydrolysis as methanogenic bacteria take long
mass doubling time of 3-4 days in anaerobic reactors. .( source:
B.Velmurugan and R.Alwar Ramanujam, Anaerobic Digestion of Vegetable
Wastes for Biogas Production in a Fed-Batch Reactor, Sep.2011)
4. Decomposition of Lignin and Cellulose: The lignin and cellulose are
building material of plants and vegetables. And they present in waste to a
high concentration, thus their decomposition is also to be kept in mind.

1. Lignin: Lignin is an organic substance binding the cells, fibers and

vessels with constitute wood and lignified elements of plants, as in straw. It
is the most abundant renewable carbon source on earth after cellulose. It is
with the waste in the form of straws, seeds, hard peels of fruits etc., thus its
hard to segregate or separate out them from the waste. There are some
methods by which lignin can be decomposed, such as by using gram
negative bacteria in aerobic decomposition, but here this method cant be
applied as in aerobic the CO2 is liberated and thus the calorific value of the
waste get reduced and thus proper amount of CH 4 cant be produced during
anaerobic decomposition and its will be increase the cost more. Pretreating
the waste with chemicals such as HCl and H 2SO4 is also an option for lignin
decomposition, since it is stated above that the vegetable waste has low pH
value. Thus this method makes the waste more acidic and it will be a new
challenge.

2. Cellulose: Cellulose is important structural component of primary cell

wall of green plants. It is a long chain of linked sugar molecules that gives
wood its remarkable strength. It is basic building block for many industries
such as cotton, paper etc. Basically it is a natural polymer, a long chain
made by linking of smaller molecules. Cellulose is the most abundant
organic polymer on earth. Thus it is a real challenge to degrade it
biologically and since the whole vegetable is made of cellulose, then it cant
be segregated. Conversion of cellulose to cellulose ethanol as biofuel is
under investigation.
Lignin and cellulose both will be treated in same way and they can be
decomposed by same method.
Flow path of process:
Design of reactor not only requires the digester, but it also need the full
specification of the influent to be fed and the quality of effluent obtained. Design is
to be done by keeping in mind that the digesters cost should be minimum. The
following are the main segments to be considered during design.

1. Formation of Slurry : The waste collected is ready to feed into the

digester. For making it appropriate for digestion, the slurry formation of
waste is necessary. Thus the waste has to be mixed with water and slurry is
to be formed by stirring it continuously for specific period of time. The
previous study done regarding to this topic shows that 200g of substrate is
taken and mixed with 1.5litre of water and then transferred into
digester(source: Sagagi, B. S., B. Garba and N. S. Usman, Studies On Biogas
Production From Fruits and Vegetable Waste, June 2009). The slurry formed
also shows various properties. The most suitable characteristics of the slurry
formed should be as shown in table below.

Typical Characteristics Of Vegetable Waste Slurry:

S.No.
Parameters
Values
1.
pH
<7
2.
Total Solids(mg/L)
9933
3.
Volatile Solids(mg/L)
4880
4.
Total Dissolved
5590
Solids(mg/L)
5.
B.O.D.(mg/L)
1200
6.
C.O.D.(mg/L)
3000
7.
Total Organic
1120
Carbon(mg/L)
(source: E.Selina Kavitah and Kurian Joseph, Biometanation Of Vegetable Waste,
2007)
The slurry formed should possess the properties similar to the above mentioned
data, as it has been noted that with these characteristics the efficiency of the
waste to produce the biogas having methane content around 60% to 70% is quite
high.

For slurry formation of 200g waste = 1.5L water is required

For slurry formation of 1 kg of waste = (1.5/0.2)L water is required
For slurry formation of 20,000kg of waste = (7.5*20,000) L water is needed
= 1, 50,000L water is needed
= 150KL water is needed

Thus 150kld water along with 20tons of waste will be feed into the anaerobic bio
reactor for generation of biogas.

Energy

Biogas
(746 m33 gas
produced at
NTP)

Organic
Fraction
Of MSW

Mixer
Blend
Tank
(for
stirrin
g)
mak

Slurry to
Digester
(170kld of
slurry)

Anaerobic
One Stage
Bio Reactor
with
additional
space for
lignin
settling

Waste water to E.T.P.

Recircula
ted
water

E.T.P.

Solid

Aerobic

Waste

Composter

Settled
Lignin
To
Collect
or

150kld water
is directed to
E.T.P. for
treatment

LIGCOL
(Lignin
Collector)

(Flow diagram of the process and digester)

2. Design of Bioreactor: The bioreactor which is to be designed is should

be one stage anaerobic bioreactor, as it is stated above why aerobic reactor is
not preferred and why the batch and two stage reactor is not used. Up flow
Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) reactor is the type of one stage reactor which
is to be preferred as it is easy to handle and its operation and maintaince cost
is less beside of its great efficiency. The design of reactor depends on the load
of influent. Here the load is slurry formed. As the slurry formed is around
170kld (as calculated above). Thus around 175KLD is going to be the load over
the digester. The design parameters of the reactor and the design of reactor is
given below.
Design of STP
Client
Project

M/s. Chandigarh Administration

0

Influent

175
.

designed flow
Average flow rate

192.5
8.02

KLD
MLD
KLD
Cu m/
hr

Parameter selected
pH
BOD
COD
SO4
TSS
VSS
SRT value desired

Assume BOD removal efficiency

I.e. Targeted UASB effluent BOD
Sludge production
VSS produce in
process
Non degradable
Ash receive in influent
Total sludge produce
or

7.3 -7.7
1200
3000
105
5933
4880
20~30

mg/l
mg/l
mg/l
mg/l
mg/l
days

80
240

%
mg/l

96

mg/l

2928
1053
4077

713

mg/l
mg/l
mg/l
Kg/day

SRT & HRT value

SRT ( Sludge retention Time)
Depth of Sludge

3.5
5

days
m

blanket
Effectiveness Coeff.
Average
Concentration of
sludge in blanket
Length of reactor
HRT

0.8
100
8
39.14

Up flow Velocity @ average flow

Reactor dimensions
Plan area required
No of Cell required
area of each cell
Length.
width
if Circular
Dia of UASB each Cell

Kg/
Cum
m
Hr

0.20

m/hr

36
3
11.9
3.4
3.4

Sq m
Sq m
M
M

3.9

Check for organic

loading
Volumetric organic
loading

1.84

Kg/Cum/day

Expected effluent
BOD

240 mg/l

Range
1-3

Kg/Cum/day

After design of UASB, the problem of decomposition of Lignin and Cellulose is

to be considered . Since the 5% of the waste is lignin which means around 1
ton out of 20 ton of waste is lignin.
Considering 5% of total waste is Lignin
5% of 20 tons = (0.5*20,000) kg
=1000kg or 1 ton lignin
Total lignin produced is 1000kg per day
Considering bulk density of the lignin is 0.5
Thus volume required by 1000kg lignin = (1000/0.5) liter
= 2000 liter or 2m 3
Space required for collection for lignin for 5 days = (2m 3 * 5)
= 10 m3

Lignin either floats or settles down as per MW. Thus If it floats then it will comes out
with water at the time of withdrawal of water from top of the tank. And if some of its
part settles down then a settling or collecting area is needed Inside the UASB from
where it can be separated out after fixed interval of time e.i after 5 days.

3. Generation of Biogas:
By providing retention time of 3.5days and hydraulic retention time of 39.14hr, the
biogas will be produced. The production of biogas depends upon the amount of
volatile component present in waste. Since the Volatile solids present in waste is
4880mg/l, thus amount of gas produced will be 0.9L/g VS fed (source: E.Selina
Kavitah and Kurian Joseph, Biometanation Of Vegetable Waste, 2007).That will be
coming out to be 746.3 m3.

Total VSS in Waste = 4880mg/L

= 4.88 g/L
According to study L/g of biogas produced is 0.9L/g = (4.88*.9) l of biogas
produced per gram
= 4.39L of biogas
Total feed is 170kld
Thus biogas from total feed = (170*4.39) m3
=746.3 m 3

Aeration Tank

Tank Volume
Top Area
Bottom Area
SWD
Effective Depth
Pipe Aerator Density
Meter length of Pipe Aerators
Membrane area
No. of Laterals
Total length of laterals
No. of aerator per Lateral
Center-to-center distance b/n
aerators
End-to-end distance b/n
aerators
Air Quantity in Sm3/hr
Air Quantity in m3/hr
Pressure drop expected
Aerator throughput rate
Membrane throughput rate
Field Correction Factor
Oxygen suggested at FIELD
condition
Oxygen required at standard
condition
S.O.T.E
A.O.T.E
SOTE/m water column
Standard Oxygenation Capacity
Actual Oxygenation Capacity

Air Quantity Calculated / m3

tank volume

34.92857
7.761905
7.761905
4.5
4.3
41.2
20
3.2
1
2.5
20
0.13
0.6

m3
m2
m2
m
m
%
Mtrs
m2
nos.
mtrs.
Nos.
m

L (mtr.) =
B (mtr.) =

(approx. value)

Sm3/hr
m3/hr
kg/cm2
Sm3/hr/m aerator
Sm3/hr/m2 membrane

(A.O.R)

158.0
185.7
0.55
7.90
49.37
0.57
8.10

(S.O.R)

14.27

kgO2/hr

32.37
18.38
7.53
21.00
11.92

%
%
%
gmO2/m3 air/m i.d.
gmO2/m3
air/m i.d.

4.52

kgO2/hr

Sm3 hr/m3 vol.

2.2
3.5

approx. air temp. at blower

outlet
Motor Energy consumption
energy at blower efficiency
Standard Aeration Capacity
Actual Aeration capacity

73.42
3.21
3.8
4.40
2.50

Deg C
kWhr
Wh/cm/100mbar
kg O2/kWhr
kg O2/kWhr