Bio-energy conversion performance, biodegradability, and kinetic analysis of different fruit residues during discontinuous anaerobic digestion

Huge amounts of fruit residues are produced and abandoned annually. The high moisture and organic contents of these residues makes them a big problem to the environment. Conversely, they are a potential resource to the world. Anaerobic digestion is a good way to utilize these organic wastes. In this study, the biomethane conversion performances of a large number of fruit residues were determined and compared using batch anaerobic digestion, a reliable and easily accessible method. The results showed that some fruit residues containing high contents of lipids and carbohydrates, such as loquat peels and rambutan seeds, were well fit for anaerobic digestion. Contrarily, residues with high lignin content were strongly recommended not to be used as a single substrate for methane production. Multiple linear regression model was adopted to simulate the correlation between the organic component of these fruit residues and their experimental methane yield, through which the experimental methane yield could probably be predicted for any other fruit residues. Four kinetic models were used to predict the batch anaerobic digestion process of different fruit residues. It was shown that the modified Gompertz and Cone models were better fit for the fruit residues compared to the first-order and Fitzhugh models. The first findings of this study could provide useful reference and guidance for future studies regarding the applications and potential utilization of fruit residues. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.