The Use of Food Waste and Cow Dung in Producing Biogas

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion is an environmentally beneficial approach to handling and disposing of biodegradable waste and has several advantages over other waste treatment methods. It maximizes energy recovery from organic waste while enabling reduced waste disposal. Currently, there is an increase in the amount of waste, especially in urban areas, which has posed a challenge to the health and comfort of the environment. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the flame properties of biogas produced by digesting organic waste using various starting materials, decomposition organic waste in anaerobic digestion process including cow dung and food waste from Restaurant Sungai Lang, Sabak Bernam District, Selangor. The objectives of this study are to produce biogas from a combination of food waste and cow dung and to measure the quantity of biogas produced. Organic waste has been tested under room temperature conditions of 28°C. The height of the flame will be measured and tested based on the color that appears from the gas. The results obtained indicated a linear relationship between gas production volume over time such as 46 ml in Week 3 to 95 ml in week 6. Combining cow dung and kitchen waste can produce more biogas than food waste alone. The study also found that burning with a flame produced better results and further verification is needed to come out with the conclusive finding.

Keywords:  Cow dung (CD), Kitchen waste (KW), Anaerobic digestion (AD), sustainable, flame