Anaerobic Treatment and Biogas Production from Organic Waste

Organic wastes under consideration are of natural origin that possess biochemical characteristics ensuring rapid microbial decomposition at relatively normal operating conditions. When considering the organic waste treatment we have generally in mind organic mineralization, biological stabilisation and detoxification of pollutants. Most common organic wastes contain compounds that are mainly well biodegradable. They can be readily mineralized either through biological treatment (aerobic or anaerobic), or thermo chemical treatment such as incineration, pyrolysis and gasification. The latter will not be treated in this work. Most organic wastes produced today originate in municipal, industrial and agricultural sector. Municipal waste (as well as municipal wastewater sludge) is generated in human biological and social activities and contains a large portion of organic waste readily available for treatment. Agricultural waste is common in livestock and food production and can be utilised for biogas production and therefore contribute to more sustainable practice in agriculture. Industrial wastes arise in many varieties and are the most difficult for biological treatment, depending of its origin. Namely, many industries use chemicals in their production in order to achieve their product quality and some of these chemicals are present in the waste stream, which is consequently difficult to treat. Recently, organic waste treatment has had a lot of attention, due to possibilities of energy recovery from these wastes as well as to prevent their adverse environmental effects. Energy recovery is possible through controlled release of chemically bound energy of organic compounds in waste and can be retrieved through chemical and biochemical processes. Most of the organic wastes appear in solid form; however contain up to 90% of moisture, therefore thermochemical treatment such as incineration cannot be applied. To address sustainability in the treatment of organic wastes, environmental aspect, energy aspect and economical aspect of the treatment processes should be considered.