International conference on Innovative Engineering Technologies (ICIET’2014) Dec.
28-29, 2014 Bangkok (Thailand)
Production of Biogas from Various Substrates
under Anaerobic Conditions
Ireene I Maile, and Edison Muzenda
 manure (CM) had more potential and among the more
Abstract—In this work, a comparative study of biogas
production from cow dung, tomato waste, food waste and spinach
was done under the same operating conditions. Biogas production
was measured using water displacement method for a period of 14
days and at an average temperature of 32.5o C. The results showed
that cow-dung produced more biogas compared to other substrates at
pH between 6.5 and 7.1.
Keywords— Anaerobic digestion, biogas yield, substrate
I. INTRODUCTION
N today’s energy demanding life style, a need for exploring
I and exploiting new sources of energy which are renewable
as well as eco-friendly is a must [1]. In rural and urban areas
of developing countries various cellulosic biomass
(agricultural residues, cattle dung, etc.) are abundantly
available and which have a very good potential to cater for the
energy demand. Fruit and vegetable wastes are produced in
large quantities in markets, and constitute a source of nuisance
in municipal landfills because of their high biodegradability
[2]. The most of promising alternative to incinerating and
composting these wastes is anaerobic digestion. The high
content of moisture and organic content of these wastes is
very important for anaerobic digestion. The main advantage of
this process is the production of biogas, which can be used for
cooking and to produce electricity. A valuable effluent is also
obtained, which eventually can be used as an excellent soil
conditioner after minor treatment [3-4]. Biogas technology
offers a very attractive route to utilize certain categories of
biomass for meeting partial energy needs. Callaghan et al,
studied co-digestion and found that co-digestion of cattle
slurry (CS) with fruit and vegetable wastes (FVW) and with
chicken
Ireen Maile is with the Department of Chemical Engineering, University of
Johannesburg, Doornfontein, Johannesburg, 2028, South Africa. (Email:
ireenmaile@yahoo.com).
E. Muzenda is a Professor of Chemical Engineering, Department of
Chemical Engineering as well as part-time Energy and Environmental
Engineering Specialist with the Process, Energy and Environmental
Technology Station, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment,
University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein, Johannesburg 2028, Tel:
+27115596817, Fax: +27115596430, (Email: emuzenda@uj.ac.za)
http://dx.doi.org/10.15242/IIE.E1214065
promising combinations for a batch process in terms of
volatile solids (VS) reduction, total methane production and
methane yield. A study was conducted by Sitorus et al, on the
recovery of biogas from anaerobic digestion process of mixed
fruit-vegetable wastes and discovered that a major limitation
of the anaerobic digestion of vegetable wastes is the rapid
acidification as a result of the low pH of the waste and the
great production of volatile fatty acids, which are responsible
for reducing the methanogenic activity of the reactor.
II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The characteristics of the substrates were done to determine
the total solids and volatile solids. The samples were weighed
and dried in an oven at 150°C overnight to get the TS, after
getting the weight of the dried sample it was then combusted
in a furnace at 500 °C for 3 hours and the VS was calculated.
The anaerobic digestion process was then carried out by a
small laboratory setup using 5L bottle as digester with 14 days
retention time. The feedstock which includes the substrate and
water was digested using 4L working volume. Biogas yield
was measured by water displacement method and the gas
composition was determined using GC X GC TOFM Pegasus
4D.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
A. Characteristics of the substrate
TABLE I
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ORGANIC SUBSTRATES
CD TW FW SW
TS 7 30.9 7.17 11.9
VS 83 93 26.35 73
PH 7.2 4.9 7.1 5.2
B. The effect of organic substrates on biogas yield
The type of organic substrate used for biogas production
plays a significant role in the yield and composition of the
biogas. The composition, components structure and size of the
substrates affect the digestion process. Cow dung, tomato
waste, spinach and food waste were used as substrates for the
anaerobic digestion and the results as shown in Fig 1.
78
 International conference on Innovative Engineering Technologies (ICIET’2014) Dec. 28-29, 2014 Bangkok (Thailand)

C. The effect of pH on digestion process

Fig. 1 Comparative biogas yield from different substrate

From Fig.1, cow dung and food waste gave higher yield of
the biogas compared to spinach and tomato waste. Cow dung
gave the highest yield compared to the other substrates, this
could be attributed to the fact that cow dung is rich in
enzymes. Every digester was allowed to run for 24 hours over
a period of fourteen days. Ojolo et al, reported in their work
that cow dung produced the second highest higher volumes of
biogas compared to all the other substrates tested. Food waste
were found to be the second to cow dung in terms of biogas
yield, and the suggested reason could be the presence of
nitrogen found in food in fats. The gas compositions was
determined using GC X GC TOFM Pegasus 4D to determine
how much methane is present in the gas produced each day.
The results observed are shown in Fig 2.
Fig. 3 pH variation of individual substrates
The pH plays an important role in the digestion process and
the livelihood of the bacteria, the methanogenic bacteria are
sensitive to a rapid change in pH. The optimum operating pH
for anaerobic digestion it normally ranges between 6.5 and 8.
Tomato waste had a low pH which could be the reason why it
resulted in less biogas, compared to other substrate. The pH of
cow dung ranged from 6.5 to 7.1 which favour methanogenic
bacteria.
IV. CONCLUSION
The substrates tested were found to be producing different
composition of biogas individually. Substrate characteristics
such as TS, VS and pH appeared to have a large influence on
the gas composition. Substrates with low pH yielded small
volumes of biogas while those with a higher pH produced
more biogas and higher methane content.

[1]
[2]
[3]
Fig. 2 Cumulative methane composition from different substrate
[4]
Comparing the methane composition of different substrate
tested it was observed that cow dung produced more methane
than other substrate and followed by food waste, spinach and [5]
tomato waste. In the current work the methane content of
biogas ranges from 40-61%, and the results obtained in
percentages are comparable to the results obtained by Rene et
al. (2008). Their results gave an average methane content of [6]
65%.
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[7] S.J. Ojolo,R.R. Dinrifo, and K.B. Adesufi, “Comparative study of biogas
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