Biogas production from the mechanically pretreated, liquid fraction of sorted organic municipal solid wastes

The high liquid content in fruit and vegetable wastes makes it convenient to mechanically separate these wastes into mostly liquid and solid fractions by means of pretreatment. Then, the liquid fraction can be treated using a high-rate anaerobic biofilm reactor to produce biogas, simultaneously reducing the amount of solids that must be landfilled. In this work, the specific composition of municipal solid waste (MSW) in a public market was determined; then, the sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste was treated mechanically to separate and characterize the mostly liquid and solid fractions. Then, the mesophilic anaerobic digestion for biogas production of the first fraction was evaluated. The anaerobic digestion resulted in a reduced hydraulic retention time of two days with high removal of chemical oxygen demand, that is, 88% on average, with the additional benefit of reducing the mass of the solids that had to be landfilled by about 80%.