Co-Treatment of Municipal Commercial Solid Waste and Cow Manure Using a Two Phase Anaerobic Process

Research was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of producing methane gas from combined segregated municipal and agricultural waste. The combination of the two wastes resulted in sufficient nutrient value and bacterial diversity to improve the biodegradability of cellulose and increase the efficiency of gas production from the combined wastes. The feedstock included municipal solid waste with 70 % paper, 20 % food waste and 10 % lawn clippings. The agricultural waste was feedlot manure. The ratio of municipal waste to agricultural waste was about 10 to 1. The results showed that the combined waste can produce as high as 1.97 m of CH4 per day per m reactor while segregated municipal waste alone produced only 0.46m of CH4 per day per m of reactor. The average methane content of the produced gas was about 72%