Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Agricultural Biomass waste for Biogas Production

The Philippines is an agricultural country with a vast amount of agricultural wastes. The country's initiatives to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions through the Biofuels Law (RA 9367) have encouraged the use of bio-based fuel sources. Biogas is a renewable, high-quality fuel which can be produced from various organic raw materials. This study investigated the production of biogas from the anaerobic codigestion of cattle manure with various feedstock such as rice straw, coconut shell, and sewage sludge. Results showed that the methane production increased by 162% from the co-digestion of cow manure with sewage sludge and co-digestion of cow manure with coconut shell and rice straw undergoes ammonia inhibition. With these, the anaerobic co-digestion of cow manure with sewage sludge has the best effect on the treatment of biomass feedstocks of rice straw coconut shell and sewage sludge at various treatment. This experiment would give a viable estimate of the possible methane production from co-digestion of these resources. The enhancement of the biogas yield was attributed to the improvement of biodegradability of cow manure through the addition of sewage sludge. These results are contributing to develop a feasible biogas production from rice straw, coconut shell, and sewage sludge.