Assessment of biomethanation potential of selected industrial organic effluents in India

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion is gaining wider acceptance in the present scenario over aerobic treatment due to production of biogas, which can be further used for meeting a part of energy demand. On the basis of primary and secondary data, the energy potential by the anaerobic digestion of the effluent from some of the polluting industries has been estimated in this paper. The pulp and paper industry has been found to have the maximum potential among others of the order of 1131 GWhe/a followed by distillery with a contribution of 830 GWhe/a to a total potential of 2963 GWhe/a equivalent electric energy. A total potential of 565 MW plant installation with anaerobic digestion technology has been estimated. The paper also describes the nature of wastewater generated by each sector, status of technologies for that sector in India and policy measures, which should be adopted for their large-scale adoption. Copyright © 2002 .