Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Biodegradable Municipal Solid Waste with Human Excreta for Biogas Production: A Review

Abstract

Biogas, which is principally composed of methane and carbon dioxide, can be obtained by anaerobic fermentation of biomass like: manure, sewage sludge, municipal solid waste. Biogas production represents a very promising way to overcome the problem of waste treatment. Furthermore, the solid residuals of fermentation might be reused as fertilizers. This review clearly indicates that co-digestion of organic waste is one of the most effective biological processes to treat a wide variety of solid organic waste products and sludge as well as biogas production. The prime advantages of this technology include (i) organic wastes with a low nutrient content can be degraded by co-digesting with different substrates in the anaerobic bioreactors, and (ii) the process simultaneously leads to low cost production of biogas, which could be vital for meeting future energy-needs.