Kitchen waste (KW) can be utilized to produce biogas due to its high biodegradability, calorific value and nutritive value to microbes, which will reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. The research work was conducted to investigate the production ability of biogas as an alternative energy from KW with co-digestion of cow manure (CM) through anaerobic digestion (AD). Firstly, three digesters were prepared to observe the individual degradation rate of KW, CM and co-digested KW with CM at room temperature (25 degrees C similar to 30 degrees C) and at temperature of 37 degrees C (mesophilic digestion) respectively and observed the degradation rate for co-digested KW with CM was higher than KW and CM alone. Secondly, three digesters were constructed to observe the effect of alkalinity at temperature 37 degrees C and loading rate 200 gm/L. Three alkali (NaOH) doses 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% on wet matter basis of kitchen waste were applied to improve biodegradability and biogas production. The highest degradation rate was 6.8 ml/gm which was obtained from 1.5% NaOH and also observed that biogas production was almost doubled from treated KW than untreated KW. Finally, a portable biogas reactor was fabricated for pilot-scale biogas production which included an agitator and heating system. This reactor was operated at both 37 degrees C and room temperature at a loading rate of 200 gm/L and observed that the digestion rate was faster at 37 degrees C than room temperature. The prime object of this work was to investigate the prospect of kitchen waste for biogas production and ultimate protection of environment from the bad effect of methane gas that would be produced by uncontrolled anaerobic digestion. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
