Biogas and biofertilizer production from organic fraction municipal solid waste for sustainable circular economy and environmental protection in Malaysia

Waste management in Malaysia remains a persistent economic and environmental challenge. Up to date, more than 80% of Malaysian solid waste disposed at landfills and dumpsites. Therefore, Malaysia is facing an urgent need to move towards a sustainable solid waste management and thus resource recovery from organic solid waste. Hence, this study aims to investigate the feasibility of energy and bio fertilizer recovery fromorganic fraction municipal solid waste (OFMSW) via anaerobic digestion. The economic and environmental benefit analysis was investigated. Approximate and elementary analysis of OFMSW samples were carried out to estimate the potential production of biogas and bio fertilizer. It was found that organic waste contributes about 45% of the total MSW generated in Malaysia. Anaerobic digestion of 50% of organicwaste is expected to produce 3941MWh/day of electrical energy and 2500 t/day of bio fertilizer. In terms of environmental impacts, 2735 t/day of Carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, 1128m(2)/day of landfilling area and 481m(3)/day of leachate can be avoided. A net revenue of 3300 million RM (1 US Dollar approximate to 4.15 RM) can be generated by the sales of electricity via Feed-in-Tariff (FiT), sales of biofertilizer to local agricultural industries and inclusive of the saving generated from the reduction of OFMSW landfilling operations and leachate treatment at landfills. Economic development can go hand-inhand with environmental sound practices in the field of waste management. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.