Pilot scale anaerobic co-digestion at tropical ambient temperature of India: Digester performance and techno-economic assessment

In the present study, performance of a pilot scale anaerobic codigestion was studied at ambient temperature for a period of 300 days. Locally available food waste and cow dung were used as feed material for the digester. The organic loading rate was increased gradually while the process parameters such as pH, alkalinity, total volatile fatty acid, chemical oxygen demand along with biogas production were carefully monitored. Results showed that at OLR of 2 kg VS/m3/d, maximum biogas yield of 4.21 L/day was observed. Based on the results obtained, the techno-economic and sensitivity analysis were performed for the digester by replacing the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) both subsidized and non-subsidized, in the household's applications. The analysis concluded that replacement of conventional sources of energy with biogas showed positive Net Present Value (NPV). The sensitivity analysis revealed that the impact of cost of LPG and digester had a strong effect on NPV. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd