Valorizing the organic fraction of agricultural residues and other similar waste using anaerobic biological treatments
In rural and peri-urban areas of Haiti, organic wastes and residues generated mainly by agricultural activities and agribusiness, are traditionally valued in situ in animal feeding as feed, in the fertilization of the soil as organic conditioner and/or for energy purposes as fuels. In parallel, the organic wastes of the cities are predominantly eliminated without any form of segregation in non-controlled landfills. This research work aimed to place the emphasis on the opportunity of valuing these wastes by biomethanation as an alternative way of biological treatment of organic biodegradable wastes. The exercise of assessment of organic wastes production has highlighted a loss of wastes-resources estimated at about 2 960 000 tons of dry matter per annum, potentially convertible to 367 500 000 Nm3 of methane or 310 000 toe, corresponding to approximately 16% of recovery of the final energy demand of the households of the whole country. The experimental approach at laboratory scale allowed to assess the ultimate biomethane potential different types of agricultural wastes like bagasse, cabbage and cattle, pigs and chickens manures as well as the possibilities of optimizing the kinetics of anaerobic digestion by some inexpensive means as the reduction of the particles size, the increase of ratio IVS/SVS, the nutrient balance and the synergy effects of co-digestion. The special conditions of implementation of the pilot approach have demonstrated the feasibility of the development of biomethanation technology, with a return period of about 5 years.