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9th International Conference on Applied Energy, ICAE2017, 21-24 August 2017, Cardiff, UK

Assessment of Bioenergy Production from Solid Waste

The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling
Iqra Samuna, Rashid Saeeda, Mohsin Abbasa, Mohammad Rehanb, Abdul-Sattar
Assessing the feasibility of using the
Nizamib,* Zaki-ul-Zaman heat
Asama, demand-outdoor
†
temperature function for a long-term
Department of Environmental
a
Sciences, Universitydistrict heat
of Gujrat, Gujrat, demand forecast
Pakistan
b
Centre of Excellence in Environmental Studies (CEES), King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

I. Andrića,b,c*, A. Pinaa, P. Ferrãoa, J. Fournierb., B. Lacarrièrec, O. Le Correc

Abstract
a
IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research - Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
b
Veolia Recherche & Innovation, 291 Avenue Dreyfous Daniel, 78520 Limay, France
This study aims
c to examine the biogas potential for animal manure, wheat straw, food waste and rice straw. Batch
Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes, France
experiments were performed at a laboratory scale using biomethane potential (BMP) assays for a period of 50 days.
The biogas yield was observed higher when using rice straw (0.51 m3/kg VSadded) as a substrate, as compared to wheat
straw (0.44 m3/kg VSadded) and animal manure (0.31 m3/kg VSadded) substrates. Around 12-25% of biogas was produced
inAbstract
the initial phase of 5 days for manure, wheat straw, and rice straw feedstocks. During the middle phase of 33 days
for these feedstocks, 68-80% of biogas was produced. Less than 8% of biogas was produced during the final phase of
District
last heating
12 days of thenetworks are commonly
experiment. The biogasaddressed in thefrom
production literature as onewas
food waste of the mostlowest
found effective solutions
(0.17 for added
m3/kg VS decreasing
) among the
allgreenhouse
substrates.gas emissions the
Therefore, fromco-digestion
the building of
sector.
foodThese
wastesystems require
and animal high investments
manure which are returned
is more appropriate through
with wheat strawtheand
heat
sales.
rice Duethan
straw to the changed climate
mono-digestion conditions higher
for achieving and building
biogasrenovation
production.policies, heat demand in the future could decrease,
prolonging the investment return period.
©The
2017main
Thescope of this
Authors. paper isbytoElsevier
Published assess the feasibility of using the heat demand – outdoor temperature function for heat demand
Ltd.
forecast. The
Peer-review district
under of Alvalade,
responsibility of thelocated in committee
scientific Lisbon (Portugal),
of the 9thwas used as aConference
International case study.onThe district
Applied is consisted of 665
Energy.
buildings that vary in both construction period and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
renovation
Keywords: scenarios
Bioenergy; were
Solid developed
waste; (shallow,
Waste to energy; intermediate,
Anaerobic digestiondeep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were
(AD); Biogas
compared with results from a dynamic heat demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors.
The results showed that when only weather change is considered, the margin of error could be acceptable for some applications
1.(the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
Introduction
scenarios, the error value increased up to 59.5% (depending on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
The value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the
The sustainable management of solid waste has become a strategic issue in most of the developing countries due to
decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination of weather and
low budgetsscenarios
renovation and poorconsidered).
administrative
On thepractices [1]. function
other hand, A significant portion
intercept of the
increased for solid wasteper
7.8-12.7% is decade
either not collected
(depending on or
the
coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters for the scenarios considered, and
improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.

*©Corresponding author. Published

2017 The Authors. Tel.: +966-598293542;
by Elsevierfax:
Ltd.+966-12-6951674.
E-mail address:
Peer-review underanizami@kau.edu.sa; nizami_pk@yahoo.com
responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and
†Cooling.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +92-300-0952675.
E-mail address: zaki.asam@uog.edu.pk
Keywords: Heat demand; Forecast; Climate change
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 9th International Conference on Applied Energy.

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 9th International Conference on Applied Energy.
10.1016/j.egypro.2017.12.108
656 Iqra Samun et al. / Energy Procedia 142 (2017) 655–660
2 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

disposed of in the landfills untreated. As a consequence, solid waste is often smoldered, covered or dumped in streets,
channels, riverbanks, and seashore [2]. This unregulated disposal of waste results in several environmental and public
health problems in the form of surface and groundwater contamination through leachate, and diseases like malaria,
cholera, and typhoid through vectors, rodents, and flies [3]. In addition, the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG) such
as methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are causing climate change [4]. In developed countries, solid waste is
often viewed as an asset of recyclable materials, energy, and revenue, if wisely managed [5-8].

An efficient way to manage the solid waste is to produce energy and value-added products from waste. There are
different thermal, biological and chemical conversion technologies to recover energy and fuels from various waste
sources, including anaerobic digestion (AD), fermentation, gasification, pyrolysis, hydrolysis, and incineration [9,10].
However, AD provides a coordinated system of renewable energy production, resources utilization, organic waste
treatment and nutrient recycling along with improved farming and environmental benefits. Furthermore, AD brings a
variety of business sectors such as power, heat, and transportation energy at one platform [11]. The utilization of biogas
in stoves and gas lamps at homes is practiced in many developing countries, whereas creating power from biogas or
using it as a compressed natural gas (CNG) after upgrading is common in developed countries [12]. AD is a controlled
biological degradation process that permits efficient production and utilization of biogas [11]. The biogas consists of
approximately 60% CH4 and 40% CO2 [11-13]. Besides the biogas, a nutrient-rich digestate is produced that can be
used as an organic fertilizer to improve the fertility of soils and plants growth and development [13]. AD is
accomplished by certain kinds of anaerobic bacteria such as acidogenic, acetogenic and methanogenic. Therefore, the
process includes a complex series of reactions that degrade the organic materials to carbon molecules, then into CO 2
and finally in CH4 [14-16].

Different studies have been carried out to enhance the rates of biogas production as well as the potential of biogas.
For example, the energy crops are developed with an ambition to increase the biogas yield [12-16]. Similarly, the
various pretreatment methods such as optimum temperature, thermochemical pretreatment, and wet oxidation methods
are evolved [11,15,16]. These pretreatment techniques make the process faster, enhance the CH4 production, make
utilization of new and locally accessible substrates, and prevent processing problems such as high electricity
requirements for mixing of feedstocks [11]. Recently, the pretreatment of animal manure by separating the high
concentrated solid is getting significant attention to enhance CH4 production per waste volume and ultimately per unit
of digester volume [11-13]. The transportation of animal slurry from the farm to the biogas plant adds an extra cost to
the AD plants. Therefore, the co-digestion of animal manure with the organic fraction of municipal solid waste
(OFMSW) and agricultural residues such as wheat straw and rice straw could reduce the overall process cost and
increase the CH4 yield per unit of digester volume [11,15,16]. This study aims to examine the biogas production of
locally produced wastes including rice straw, wheat straw, food waste and manure. Laboratory-scale batch experiments
were performed to determine the total biogas production per kg of volatile solids added (m3/kg VSadded). The challenges
and future perspectives on utilizing various waste sources for optimized biogas production are also discussed.

2. Material and Methods

2.1 Preparation of feedstocks

The feedstocks used in this study were manure, wheat straw, food waste and rice straw (Figure 1). Rice straw and
wheat straw were collected from a local farm located around 1 km North of University of Gujrat, Pakistan. Food waste
was collected from the local hotels of Gujrat city, and manure was collected from a local farm located near University
of Gujrat, Pakistan. Rice straw and wheat straw were already shredded into small pieces when received from the farm.
Whereas, the food waste was shredded into small pieces with the help of a chopper. All these materials were stored in
closed containers at room temperature till used. The inoculum was collected from a village called Chak Dadan in
Gujranwala district of Pakistan and was stored at room temperature in a closed container until it was used.
 Iqra Samun et al. / Energy Procedia 142 (2017) 655–660 657
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 3

Manure Wheat straw

Food waste Rice straw

Figure 1. Feedstocks used in the batch experiments of AD

2.2 Experimental setup

Biomethane potential (BPM) assays bottles of 500 ml each were used for all batch experiments in this study.
Different feedstocks were placed in the BMP bottles after determining their dry solid (DS) and volatile solid (VS)
contents followed by the addition of inoculums according to pre-decided feedstocks to inoculum ratios (Table 1).
These ratios were decided to keep the same DS contents at the start of the experiment in all BPM bottles for different
materials. There were 5 samples in total including the blank sample. All 5 samples were tested in triplicate in BMP
bottles (Figure 2). A ratio of 5 g DS:100 g inoculum was used for each feedstock type. The BMP bottles were purged
with nitrogen gas to remove any air within the bottles. Afterward, the bottles were fully closed by the rubber stoppers
and metal screw caps. The effect of inoculum on gas production was estimated using a blank sample by adding 100 g
of inoculum without any feedstock. All of the BMP bottles were operated at the mesophilic temperature range (37.5
°C).

Table 1. Different feedstocks and their rations with inoculum

Feedstocks Feedstock to inoculum ratio Equivalent dry solids Equivalent volatile solids
(5 g DS : 100 g) (DS) in BPM (VS) in BPM

Manure 19.16 g 5.0 g 2.3 g

Wheat straw 5.5 g 5.0 g 4.91 g
Food waste 35.15 g 5.0 g 4.54 g
Rice straw 5.34 g 5.0 g 4.20 g

2.3 Analytical methods

All of the feedstocks were analyzed for DS and VS contents before being digested in the BPM bottles (Figure 2).
Similarly, the DS and VS contents of the digestate were measured at the end of the experiment when there was no
further biogas production. In all assays, triplicate samples were taken. The DS contents were measured by drying a
known mass of the sample (Ws) in an oven at 105 °C for 24 hours. After drying, the dry mass (WDM) was measured
658 Iqra Samun et al. / Energy Procedia 142 (2017) 655–660
4 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

and accordingly the DS contents by the expression of DS (%) = 100 × WDM / Ws. The VS contents were determined
by burning the dried samples at 550 °C in a muffle furnace for 12 hours. After, the weight of ash (W ash) was measured
and accordingly the final VS contents by using the expression of VS (%) = (100 × (WDM - Wash)/ WDM. At the start of
the experiment, the VS content of the feedstocks (VSs) was determined, whereas, the VS of the digested mixture
(VSm) and inoculum (VSi) were determined after 50 days of the experiment. For feedstock’s VS contents, the standard
expression of VSs - (VSm - VSi) was used. The biogas yield was measured daily in initial 2 weeks, then in the 3rd
week measurement was decreased to 2 days using a syringe technique [11]. The frequency was further reduced to
every 3rd day in the 4th week and afterward in the 5th week 2 times and once in the last weeks. The composition of
biogas was measured using a Gas Chromatograph (GC).

Figure 2. BMP bottles stored in oven at 37.5 °C

3. Results and Discussion

3.1 The variations in biogas production

The biogas production from animal manure, wheat straw, food waste, rice straw and inoculum was measured for
50 days. In most cases, the quantity of biogas produced from triplicate samples showed variation. The variation of
biogas production (between triplicates) from different substrates during the batch experiment can be seen in Figure 3.
Overall, it was observed that the biogas production was more when the bottles were regularly mixed during the
digestion process. This indicates the need for a regular mixing to enable bacterial communities to digest the organic
matter more efficiently. In addition, it was observed that there are three different phases of degradation. In the start,
after 5 days, there was a rapid biogas production because easily degradable organic matter was digested. After 30
days, the biogas rates become less, which indicate the degradation of the complex organic matter by microorganisms.
This phase was continued till the last days with little increase in cumulative biogas (Figure 3). After 40 days of
digestion period, microorganisms depleted the available organic matter and entered into a stationary phase
characterized by very low degradation of residual biodegradable material (Figure 3).

3.2 Biogas production from manures, wheat straw, food waste, and rice straw

The cumulative biogas production from all feedstock sources including; manure, wheat straw, food waste and rice
straw, are shown in Figure 3. The total amounts of biogas produced by rice straw were 0.51 m3/kg VSadded, wheat
straw was 0.44 m3/kg VSadded, animal manure was 0.31 m3/kg VSadded, and food waste was 0.17 m3/kg VSadded in 50
days (Figure 3). It was observed that the biogas production rates, except for food waste, were slow at the beginning.
After few days, the production rate increased and then started to level off for the last few days of the experiment. The
biogas yields period was broken into three phases; initial phase (first 5 days), middle phase (day 5-38) and final phase
(day 38-50). Around 7-25% of biogas was produced in the initial phase of 5 days for manure, wheat straw, and rice
straw feedstocks. During the middle phase of 33 days for these feedstocks, 68-80% of biogas was produced. Less than
16% of biogas was produced during the final phase of last 12 days of the experiment. This shows that the retention
time should be shorter for the duration of digestion. For manure feedstock, 11.9% of biogas was produced during the
initial phase, 80.1% in middle phase and 8.0% in the final phase. The highest amount of 25.2% biogas was produced
 Iqra Samun et al. / Energy Procedia 142 (2017) 655–660 659
Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 5

during the initial phase for wheat straw feedstock, 67.8% for middle phase and 7.0% for the final phase. Similarly, the
rice straw feedstock produced 21.6, 71.0 and 7.4% of biogas during the initial, middle and final phases respectively.
Manure

8.0%
80.1%

11.9%

Wheat straw
7.0%

67.8%

25.2%

Food waste

16.5%
76.1%

7.4%

Rice straw 7.4%

71.0%

21.6%

Figure 3. Biogas production (m3/Kg VSadded) from animal manure, wheat straw, food waste and rice straw

The food waste produced the lowest amounts of biogas as compared to other feedstocks (Figure 3). On the 5th day, it
produced a total biogas of only 0.01 m3/kg VSadded, which slowly increased and reached up to 0.14 m3/kg VSadded by
day 38 and the maximum amount of 0.17 m3/kg VSadded by day 50. The microorganisms might have consumed the
accessible organic matter after few days and entered into a stationary phase characterized by low production of biogas
660 Iqra Samun et al. / Energy Procedia 142 (2017) 655–660
6 Author name / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

[11,16]. The possible reasons of lower biogas production from food waste, as per the number of studies could be due
to a higher release of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in leachate and larger particle size [11-16].

3.3 Future Perspectives

Rice straw and wheat straw have a high biogas potential, and the use of these substrates would increase the biogas
production and ultimately the CH4 yield of the biogas. The cost effective and efficient utilization of biomass in biogas
plants has an incredible potential in Pakistan, particularly when the country is facing massive energy crises. Biogas
plants rely on a constant supply of feedstocks round the year for an economic process output. Therefore, it is critical
to explore alternative substrates with high biogas yield potential. The procedure of scattering of new biomass
technologies could be supported by building up awareness of the environmental issues among the local population.
The reinforcing and adequacy of research institutes of the country are additional elements for the success of waste to
energy. Moreover, a focus should be given on the system level, including the potential in certain areas and regions
based on the availability of feedstocks, how large should a treatment facility be in respect to the transportation, and
what is the best utilization of the biogas, including its techno-economic assessment [16,17].

4. Conclusions

The biogas production of different substrates such as animal manure, wheat straw, food waste and rice straw was
successfully carried out at laboratory scale batch experiments. Biomethane potential (BMP) assays were used to
determine the biogas yields for a total duration of 50 days at mesophilic temperature (37.5 °C). The biogas production
in all feedstocks followed the standard curve of biogas; production started in initial days, achieved highest peaks and
then leveled off. In rice straw (0.51 m3/kg VSadded) and wheat straw (0.44 m3/kg VSadded), biogas productivity was
observed higher. Whereas, from animal manure (0.31 m3/kg VSadded) and food waste (0.17 m3/kg VSadded), the average
biogas production was lower. Therefore, co-digestion of animal manure and food waste are more suited with wheat
straw and rice straw than mono-digestion for achieving higher biogas production.

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