Semi-dry mesophilic anaerobic digestion of water sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste (WS-OFMSW)

An innovative municipal solid waste separation technology – water separation was developed in China recently. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of anaerobic digestion from water sorted organic fraction of municipal solid waste (WS-OFMSW) to methane. A group of bench-scale (35 L) mesophilic (30 ± 2 °C) batch anaerobic digestions were carried out with three total solids in reactor (TSr = 16.0%, 13.5% and 11.0%). The biodegradability of WS-OFMSW with VS/TS of 61.6% was better than that of mechanically sorted OFMSW but still poor than that of source sorted OFMSW. No inhibitions of metal ions, volatile fatty acids and ammonia on anaerobic digestion were found. The reactors with TSr 16.0%, 13.5% and 11.0% achieved methane yield of 273, 283 and 314 L/kgVS and VS removal rate of 26.1%, 35.8% and 41.8%, respectively. The average methane content in biogas was about 66% for all reactors.