Utilization of Kitchen Waste for Generation of Fuel

About 80% of homes in rural India meet their energy needs through solid biomass such as firewood, crop residue and cow dung. In urban areas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supplied in portable cylinders is used in over 59% of homes. However, India being an oil scarce country and increased reliance of our country on costly imports, alternative measures of energy need to be pursued. The Bhavans’ college campus in Andheri West suburb of Mumbai has an area of 64 acres, consists of three colleges and three schools. There are around four canteens and three dining halls that utilize several LPG cylinders and generate high amount of kitchen waste every day. Kitchen waste can have as high calorific value (HCV) of around 17000 kJ/kg. Survey was conducted of all campus kitchens and tests were performed on their food wastes to determine the feasibility of extracting energy from them. The samples collected had high calorific value and organic content. The moisture content of these samples was moderate high; therefore anaerobic digestion was considered preferred waste to energy plan. The following study consists of characterisation of waste and designing an anaerobic digester that would produce cost effective, high quality methane gas from this food waste, which can be used to supplement the fuel requirements of the campus kitchen.