38. Feasibility Study on Energy Generation from Municipal Organic Waste Through Biogas Production

Presently, waste to energy conversion is a leading technology throughout the World due to diminishing fossil fuels day by day. By anaerobic digestion process producing methane-rich biogas from wastes as an alternative source of energy that can fulfil the energy demand in future with depletion of the waste volume. In Kolkata city, a major issue is huge waste generation and its open dumping waste disposal system which causes environmental degradation. In this city, the responsible authority for waste management system is Kolkata municipal corporation (KMC). The objective of this study is to assess the feasibility of biogas generation from the municipal organic waste generated under the KMC area on basis of the performance analysis of biogas and methane production rates. For this purposes, three experiments have been performed in a lab-scale batch digester for 30 days. Municipal organic waste has been used as main feedstock and mixed with inoculums such as cow dung, sewage water and leachate in each experiment. The quantity of produced biogas per day has been measured by the water displacement method and by the syringe method estimated the presence of methane and carbon dioxide in produced biogas. By the destruction of VSS and COD, the biogas generation has been measured. Comparing all aspects, it has been obtained that municipal organic waste under KMC is viable to produce biogas in presence of inoculum and cow dung is the most effective inoculum. So, in future this process can be utilized for both energy generation and waste reduction purposes.