Towards sustainable agricultural waste management: reuse and energy recovery alternatives for biomass

This research investigated the anaerobic co-digestion of several agricultural biomass (nutshell, potato peels, olive bagasse and grass) with wastewater sludges to produce biogas. The applied co-digestion process successfully resulted in improved biogas/methane yields compared to single sludge digestion and appeared to be an energy-efficient disposal alternative for sludges and agricultural residues. The highest biogas yield was obtained from wastewater sludges and grass co-digestion to be 0.58 L/gVS(degraded), where the biogas yield from single sludge digestion was 0.24 L/gVS(degraded). Being compatible with grass, the obtained biogas yields from the co-digestion with agricultural residues were almost 2.5 times higher than single sludge digestion.