Characterisation of Fruit and Vegetable Waste with Cow Dung for Maximizing the Biogas Yield

The biogas production and methane (CH4) enrichment for anaerobic digestion (AD) of fruit and vegetable waste (FVW). The biogas production and methane content of fruit and vegetable wastes (FVW) degradation were evaluated against a treatment combination with a cow dung at a Ratio of FVW to Cow dung T1 (cow dung alone), T2 (1:3), T3 (1:1), T4 (3:1),and T5 (FVW alone). The digesters were operated for 80 days. The highest total methane yields about 78.35% was obtained from the cow dung digester (T1). The highest production of biogas yield (7552.67 ml) was observed in T1 and the lowest biogas production rate (2652.83ml) was from a reactor operated by FVW alone. Similar to the biogas yield, higher percentage of methane was produced in 1.Anaerobic digestion; vegetable and fruit wastes of high calorific contents can be transformed to a source of energy through the production of biogas in this day and age of energy insufficiencies. Role in maximizing the process of anaerobic digestion through speeding up hydrolysis and to compare production potentials of commonly available wastes in Addis Ababa for possible co-digestion in large scale production of biogas. Thermo-chemical pre-treatment was the most effective for speeding up hydrolysis with the co-digested substrates producing maximum biogas. The moisture content ranged between 67-83%. The pH reduced from 6.8-7.2 before digestion to 6.2-6.8 after digestion. The desired C: N ratio was between 18:1 to 32:1 for Anaerobic Digestion. The gas produced was found to contain 63.89% methane, 33.12% CO2 and 3% other gases.