BIOGAS PRODUCTION FROM MUNICIPAL WASTE NITHIYAA MANIKAM UNIVERSITI TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN BIOGAS PRODUCTION FROM MUNICIPAL WASTE NITHIYAA MANIKAM A project report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Bachelor (Hons.) of Chemical Engineering Faculty of Engineering and Science Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman April 2012 iii DECLARATION I hereby declare that this project report is based on my original work except for citations and quotations which have been duly acknowledged. I also declare that it has not been previously and concurrently submitted for any other degree or award at UTAR or other institutions. Signature : _________________________ Name : _________________________ ID No. : _________________________ Date : _________________________ iv APPROVAL FOR SUBMISSION I certify that this project report entitled “BIOGAS GENERATION FROM MUNICIPAL WASTE” was prepared by NITHIYAA MANIKAM has met the required standard for submission in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Bachelor of (Hons.) Chemical Enginnering at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman. Approved by, Signature : _________________________ Supervisor : Ms.Bee Soo Tueen Date : _________________________ v The copyright of this report belongs to the author under the terms of the copyright Act 1987 as qualified by Intellectual Property Policy of University Tunku Abdul Rahman. Due acknowledgement shall always be made of the use of any material contained in, or derived from, this report. © 2012, Nithiyaa Manikam. All right reserved. vi Specially dedicated to my father and mother. vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I offer my sincerest gratitude to UTAR for providing a precious opportunity to pursue my interest in Bachelor of Chemical Engineering by conducting my final year project in the specified area. Besides that, I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ms.Bee who has supported me throughout my journey completing my final year project programme with her patience and knowledge whilst allowing me the room to work with her without any position borders. One simply could not wish for a better or friendlier supervisor. She is a person full of knowledge where she was very generous in sharing me her knowledge while guiding me on the tasks which were assigned for me. Furthermore, this report would not have been possible unless with the guidance of my colleagues who shared me their experiences and wisdom when I was doing my projects and report. They correct me if I do any mistakes in the tasks which were assigned to me. In addition, the guide and some techniques from both Professor Dr.Sivanesan and Dr.Elango from Anna University, India have also helped in my report writing as well as experiment conduct. Besides that, I would like to show appreciation to my parents for giving me moral support throughout the project in UTAR besides guiding me on this report writing. I would like to also thank them for giving me both the physical and financial support to make this report a success. Last but not least, I heartily thankful to god for giving me a golden opportunity to inculcate self-esteem and confidence in myself by performing in this project. In short, I offer my regards and blessings to all of those who supported me in any respect during the completion of this report and during my project duration. viii BIOGAS PRODUCTION FROM MUNICIPAL WASTE ABSTRACT Waste management problem has raised a huge attention from many authorities. Besides that, non-renewable energy depletion caused awareness to the society on curbing the issue. Due to these current issues in Malaysia, biogas production from municipal waste was being introduced. The method to produce the biogas was anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion is a digestion process of organic wastes without the presence of oxygen. A lab scale anaerobic digester for batch mode was designed and built using mechanical parts. Methane production from municipal waste specifically food waste (fruit, grain and vegetable) was conducted for a period of two weeks respectively. The digestion was conducted by using temperature range of 27 °C to 36 °C and pH 6.5 to 7.5 to yield an optimum condition for the digestion process. The anaerobic condition was maintained by purging nitrogen gas into the digester for 20 minutes whereas the pH value was maintained by adding and mixing 50 ml of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) into the feedwaste. The digestion process was done by the aid of inoculums which was cow dung as the amount of methanogens is high. Methane production was monitored everyday by the height of water in the measuring container and the total methane production was summed after two weeks. The highest yield for methane was grain waste with the value recorded was 2546 ml due to the high content of carbohydrate. The next was fruit waste since the amount of glucose was high and followed by vegetable waste which contains high fibres and cellulose walls. For the fertilization test, fruit waste demonstrated the best observation for the growth of plant due to high content of potassium and followed by vegetable waste. The least effective fertilizer was grain waste due to less content of nutrients essential for plants. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION iii APPROVAL FOR SUBMISSION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ix LIST OF TABLES xii LIST OF FIGURES xiii LIST OF SYMBOLS / ABBREVIATIONS xv CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 16 1.1 Background 16 1.2 Problem Statement 18 1.3 Aims and Objective 19 1.4 Scope of Study 19 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 21 2.1 Background of Biogas and Methane 21 2.2 Demand in Malaysia 26 2.2.1 From Waste to Energy, Semenyih Selangor 28 2.2.2 Turning Waste into Viable Income 29 2.2.3 Turning Waste the Modern Way, Bangi 29 2.2.4 Turning Pig Waste into Energy, Sitiawan 30 2.2.5 Power from Oil Palm Waste, Kota Kinabalu 31 2.3 Municipal Waste (MW) Generation in Malaysia 31 x 2.4 Anaerobic Digestion Technology 38 2.4.1 History of Anaerobic Digestion (AD) 39 2.4.2 Types of Anaerobic Digester 39 2.4.2.1 System of Anaerobic Digester 40 2.4.2.2 Modes of Anaerobic Digester 41 2.4.2.3 Mechanical Design of Anaerobic Digester 42 2.4.3 Process of Anaerobic Digestion (AD) 45 2.4.4 Factors Affecting Anaerobic Digestion Efficiency 48 2.4.4.1 pH Level 48 2.4.4.2 Temperature 48 2.4.4.3 Mixing 49 2.4.4.4 Total Solid (TS) 50 2.4.4.5 Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio (C/N) 50 2.4.5 Advantages of Anaerobic Digestion to the Society 51 2.4.5.1 Odour Control 51 2.4.5.2 Renewable Energy Production 51 2.4.5.3 Electricity Generation 52 2.4.5.4 Fertilizer Production 52 2.5.5.4 Pathogen Reduction 52 2.5 Literature Study on Various Feedstock 53 3 METHODOLOGY 56 3.1 Materials 56 3.1.1 Food Waste 56 3.1.2 Chemicals 56 3.1.3 Inoculum 57 3.2 Apparatus 57 3.2.1 Design of Anaerobic Digester 57 3.3 Equipments for Analysis 58 3.3.1 Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) 58