Co-digestion

Co-digestion is a viable option for improving the yields of biogas from anaerobic digestion from solid wastes. This occurs because the use of a co-substrate adds positive synergisms in a digester and supplies missing nutrients by the co-substrates. For instance, livestock waste (manure) and other types of organic waste such as sewage, agricultural waste etc. offer combined characteristics to improve biogas yield and reduce the hydraulic retention time. Agricultural waste or energy crops produce more methane but at the expense of higher retention times of over 100 days. Co-digesting with livestock waste can also help establish the required moisture content in the feedstock to the digester resolving problems of pumping and mechanical treatment of waste [1].

Advantages and disadvantages of Co-digestion [2]

Advantage Improved nutrient balance and digestion Provide additional biogas collection Provide additional fertiliser Disadvantage Increased digester effluent chemical oxygen demand (COD) Require additional pre-treatment requirements Require more mixing requirements Require wastewater treatment requirement Digestate cannot be used for every type of land Dependent on crop cost and yield

Reduced hydraulic retention time (HRT)

Bibliography
[1] Anaerobic digestion of organic solid wastes. An overview of research achievements and perspectives. Barcelona : s.n., January 24, 2000. [2] Wu, Wei. Advantages and Limitations of co-digestion. [Online] [Cited: November 11, 2013.] http://home.engineering.iastate.edu/~tge/ce421-521/wei.pdf.