DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPUTATIONAL SIMULATION TOOL FOR ASSESSING BIOGAS POTENTIAL OF ORGANIC WASTE MIXTURES
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24191/myse.v13i2.9851Keywords:
Distillery and Fruit Vegetables Waste, Methane Yield, MATLAB, Anaerobic Digestion, BiogasAbstract
Biogas production has become an increasingly important option for addressing the challenges particularly in organic waste management and renewable energy generation. While Anaerobic Digestion (AD) offers a sustainable waste-to-energy solution, optimising the co-digestion process of different substrates remains a challenge. Traditional methods for determining optimal feedstock ratios and operational parameters rely on laboratory-based experiments which are often resource intensive, time consuming, and costly. To address this limitation, this study presents a simplified MATLAB-based simulation tool designed to estimate methane yield without the need for complex kinetic parameters. The tool is designed for accessibility and utilises secondary experimental data to predict biogas potential cost-effectively. The simulation results demonstrated that the 75:25 (DW:FVW) mixture achieved the highest efficiency, recording a yield of 0.0791 L/gVS which is 26% improvement compared to mono-digestion of Fruit Waste. The results indicate that the tool effectively captures the synergistic effects of co-digestion, providing logical trends in methane production that is consistent with biological principles. By offering a user-friendly interface for rapid feasibility assessment, this tool serves as a decision support system for researchers and small-scale biogas operators which enables them to optimise waste management strategies without the need for complex equipment or extensive physical trials.
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