The Biogas Production from Brewery Waste: A Case Study for Tanzania Breweries Company Limited (Arusha-Branch)

Abstract

Beverage and Food processing industries are extremely large consumers of energy and bio-waste producer worldwide. Due to its high concentration of organic compounds, which imposes a high biochemical oxygen to the waste's breakdown, disposal from these companies in the environment increases the risk of inconvenience to the ecosystem. In this context, the brewing industry's production phases included the fermentation of vegetable feedstock such as barley malt, hops, and grains that produces a variety of by-products. Fermented malts, hops, yeast and water which used for the beer production caused waste materials that are disposed as organic wastes. Experimentally the waste as anaerobic digestion feed was assessed. The idea was to support the environment by utilizing alternative energy using the bio-waste from the brewery industry. Samples from the Tanzanian Breweries Company Limited (TBL) Arusha branch were taken to the CAMARTEC biogas digester. The wastes in form of sludge were investigated for anaerobic digestion. The findings of this study showed that waste from the brewing sector may be converted into environmentally acceptable solutions to be used as a biogas.