Biogas from anaerobic digestion of fruit and vegetable wastes: Experimental results on pilot-scale and preliminary performance evaluation of a full-scale power plant

Abstract This paper presents the experimental results obtained through an anaerobic digestion pilot plant by using fruit and vegetable wastes as single substrate. The substrate materials were sampled from the wastes produced by the Fruit and Vegetable Wholesale Market of Sardinia (Italy). The experimental study was carried out over a period of about 6 months to evaluate the most suitable operating parameters of the process depending on the availability of different kinds of fruit and vegetable wastes over the different periods of the year. Overall, the optimum daily loading rate of wastes was 35 kg/d, with a corresponding hydraulic residence time of 27 days. The optimum organic loading rate ranged from 2.5 to 3.0 kgVS/m3 d and the average specific biogas production was about 0.78 Nm3/kgVS, with a specific methane yield of about 0.43 Nm3/kgVS. The results of the experimental investigation were used for a preliminary performance evaluation of a full-scale anaerobic digestion power plant for treating all the fruit and vegetable wastes produced by the Wholesale Market of Sardinia (9 t/d). The estimate of daily methane production (290 Nm3/d) leads to a CHP unit with a power output of about 42 kW and an annual electrical production of about 300 MW h/year (about 25% of the wholesale market electrical consumption). The AD power plant also shows interesting economic features, since its energy production cost (about 150 €/MW h) is slightly lower than the energy purchase cost of the wholesale market (about 200 €/MW h) and a Pay-Back Time of about 7.25 years can be achieved in the case of dispatching the electrical energy to the national grid. The PBT decreases to about 5.4 years if 50% of the available thermal energy is used to substitute heat production from fossil fuel boilers.