Increasing Anaerobic Digestion Efficiency Using Food-Waste-Based Biochar

The efficiency of methane production by anaerobic digestion (AD), during which energy is generated from organic waste, can be increased in various ways. Recent research developments have increased the volume of gas production during AD using biochar. Previous studies have used food waste itself in AD, or, added wood-biochar or sewage sludge charcoal as an accelerant of the AD process. The application of food-waste biochar in AD using activated sludge has not yet been studied and is considered a potential method of utilizing food waste. Therefore, this study investigated the use of biochar prepared by the thermal decomposition of food waste as an additive to AD tanks to increase methane production. The addition of food-waste biochar at 1% of the digestion tank volume increased the production of digestion gas by approximately 10% and methane by 4%. We found that food-waste biochar served as a medium with trace elements that promoted the proliferation of microorganisms and increased the efficiency of AD.