An Overview of Anaerobic Digestion of Agricultural By-Products and Food Waste for Biomethane Production

Alessandro Neri, Bruno Bernardi (), Giuseppe Zimbalatti and Souraya Benalia
Additional contact information
Alessandro Neri: Dipartimento di Agraria, Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Feo di Vito, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Bruno Bernardi: Dipartimento di Agraria, Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Feo di Vito, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Giuseppe Zimbalatti: Dipartimento di Agraria, Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Feo di Vito, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy
Souraya Benalia: Dipartimento di Agraria, Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Feo di Vito, 89122 Reggio Calabria, Italy

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 19, 1-20

Abstract: In a world facing increasing environmental and energy challenges, anaerobic digestion of agrifood by-products and food waste could contribute to the production of green energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. Anaerobic digestion is a biological process capable of breaking down and stabilising organic matter in the absence of oxygen and converting it into a renewable source of energy, known as biogas. Biomethane production also enables the generation of electricity and produces digestate, a by-product of the digestion process that can be used as a soil conditioner or fertiliser. This review aims to highlight how substrate pretreatment, together with the optimisation of operating parameters, application of additives, recirculation of digestate and frequent feeding, can increase biogas production. An overview of the basics of the anaerobic digestion of agrifood by-products and food waste is provided, including feedstock characteristics (nutrient content, particle size and inhibitory compounds) and process parameters (process configuration, pH, temperature, total and volatile solids, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, ammonium, chemical oxygen demand, carbon/nitrogen ratio, retention time, organic loading rate, etc.). In addition, recent studies in the field of processes, equipment and pretreatments that can significantly improve the anaerobic digestion process of agricultural and food wastes were classified and discussed. Finally, the challenges and future perspectives of biogas production from the agrifood sector are addressed.

Keywords: anaerobic digestion; biogas; biochemical methane potential; mesophilic and thermophilic conditions; batch test; continuous stirred-tank reactor; pretreatment; agrifood by-products; food waste (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/19/6851/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/19/6851/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:19:p:6851-:d:1249297

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().