Abstract
Kitchen waste (KW) can be utilized to produce biogas due to its high biodegradability, calorific value and nutritive value to
microbes, which will reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. The research work was conducted to investigate the production
ability of biogas as an alternative energy from KW with co-digestion of cow manure (CM) through anaerobic digestion (AD).
Firstly, three digesters were prepared to observe the individual degradation rate of KW, CM and co-digested KW with CM at
room temperature (25°C~30° C) and at temperature of 37°C (mesophilic digestion) respectively and observed the degradation
rate for co-digested KW with CM was higher than KW and CM alone. Secondly, three digesters were constructed to observe the
effect of alkalinity at temperature 37° C and loading rate 200 gm/L. Three alkali (NaOH) doses 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% on wet
matter basis of kitchen waste were applied to improve biodegradability and biogas production. The highest degradation rate was
6.8 ml/gm which was obtained from 1.5% NaOH and also observed that biogas production was almost doubled from treated KW
than untreated KW. Finally, a portable biogas reactor was fabricated for pilot-scale biogas production which included an agitator
and heating system. This reactor was operated at both 37° C and room temperature at a loading rate of 200 gm/L and observed
that the digestion rate was faster at 37° C than room temperature. The prime object of this work was to investigate the prospect of
kitchen waste for biogas production and ultimate protection of environment from the bad effect of methane gas that would be
produced by uncontrolled anaerobic digestion