Potential of Using Kitchen Waste in a Biogas Plant
Abstract—India’s economic growth is contributing to a
massive increase in the generation of solid waste.
Approximately 55 million tones of Municipal Solid Waste is
generated annually by urban areas in India. Over 59% of
homes in urban India use Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG)
supplied in portable cylinders for their cooking needs. However,
due to our country’s dwindling petroleum reserves and
increased costly imports of petroleum, non conventional energy
resources are slowly gaining importance. The use of biogas
using kitchen waste as feedstock can help solve the problem of
energy deficit and at the same time, allow the safe disposal of
kitchen waste which is often unscientifically dumped or
discarded. Our institute campus (Bhavans’ campus) has a
number of campus kitchens that utilize several LPG cylinders
and also generate large amounts of kitchen waste. The kitchen
waste generated has high calorific value and moisture content;
hence it can be anaerobically digested. The biogas produced can
be used to supplement the fuel requirements of the campus
kitchens that generate the kitchen waste. This study consists of
carrying out survey, characterization of kitchen waste from
several kitchens and exploring it’s potential to be used for
biogas production.