Food waste is increasingly becoming a major problem in MU imposing serious environmental impact. Conversion of the food waste using anaerobic digestion (a series of biological processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen.) to biogas energy is a best option for the management of food waste and for replacement of traditional fuel used (coal) which has been employed for cooking and heating application. In addition, the slurry produced from the process provides digestate which is a source of fertilizer. This paper investigates the potential of food waste leftover in MIT to produce biogas. The total solid, volatile solids, moisture content and ash content of the food waste were 40%, 71.87%, 60%, and 28.13% respectively. The food waste and water were mixed in a ratio of 1 to 4 to optimize the biogas yield. The mixing ratio of food waste sample and water was determined by carrying out a series of experiments. A volume of 18.75m3 fixed dome end anaerobic digester was designed underground based on HRT and the daily substrate input in MIT campus. The amount of biogas produced from the experimental set up was measured by syringe method and the production rate was predicted by modified Gomprtez mathematical equation. Furthermore, process simulation was performed by super pro designer V.9 to estimate the biogas production rate and the amount of residue (digestate) produced from a daily input. The biogas produced from an input of 100kg food waste mixed with 400 liter of water per day has a composition of 52.24 % methane, 47.75 % carbon dioxide, 0.01 % of hydrogen sulfide and 0.0000071 % of water.

Keywords : Digestate, Biogas, anaerobic digestion, fertilizer, HRT, slurry and process simulate.