Effects of particle size of food waste on methane gas production and dewaterability of digestate in co-digestion with dairy manure

2^nd International Conference on Hydrology & Groundwater Expo

August 26-27, 2013 DoubleTree by Hilton, Raleigh, NC, USA

Fred Owusu Agyeman

Posters: Hydrol Current Res

Abstract :

Dairy farming and food production operations are continuing to intensify worldwide and bring not only economic development, but also introduce environmental challenges including the disposal of waste from these operations. Land application of these sources of wastehas been linked to nutrient contamination of surface water and groundwater. Biogas recovery systems exploit natural biodegradation of manure and other nutrient sources which would otherwise pollutethese water sources, with the generated biogas potentially providing an energy source.Three 2-L complete-mix anaerobic digesters were operated for co-digestion of domestic food waste (FW) and dairy manure (DM) (50%: 50% by VS) at 36 ± 1 πC with organic loading rate (OLR) increased stepwise from 0.67 to 3 g VS/L/d. The FWwas shredded through cutting plates with different holediameters (2.5, 4 and 8 mm) for the three digesters, respectively. The digesters were seeded with municipal anaerobic digester sludge and anaerobically digested DM.

Biography :

Fred Owusu Agyeman was born in Odumasi in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. He received his bachelor?s degree in Agriculture Technology from the University for Development Studies in Tamale (Ghana). He won a scholarship from the Ford Foundation International Fellowship Program to pursue a masters degree in Environmental Engineering at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He returned to Ghana to work on an Agricultural/Ecotourism business