Relationship between volatile fatty acids concentrations and methane gas production in two-phase reactor

Abstract

Production of methane gas via anaerobic digestion process is the method that already commercialized in the sustainable of renewable energy. Food waste co-digestion with palm oil mill effluent (POME) in two phase reactors is a new research applied. This study is to look the relationship between volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and methane gas (CH4) production. There are two types of two phase reactors are used which are ASL (A-A1) and ASL (B-B1). Food waste collected from the university cafeterias were sorted out in three different groups which are group A (45% of rice, noodle), group B (30% of meat, fish) and group C (25% of vegetables). Three different temperature conditions which are 35°C, 45°C and 50°C were set up to the reactor with different ratio of food waste to inoculums. The results showed that VFAs concentrations in ASL 50 (B-B1) did not indicate the impact when methane production increased to 72.0%. However, from all experimental tested on three different temperatures showed VFAs concentrations as inhibitors for methane gas production.