Kinetic Modeling of Biogas from Food Waste: A Case Study of Ethiopian Airlines
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Date
2017-01
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
When looking for sustainable energy systems that are environmentally friendly, clean and
versatile, Biogas plays a significant role. Moreover, converting food waste into Biogas helps to
generate energy and reduce greenhouse gas emission by avoiding food waste from going to
landfill since methane is a greenhouse gas, if it is not properly handled, can create global
warming. Thus, finding an alternative energy sources that are efficient and environmentally
friendly is a very challenging task. However, understanding the detail phenomena inside a
Biogas reactor helps to better use the full potential of Biogas. Thus, in this thesis, a detailed
kinetics model has been performed. Besides, the model has been validated by using
experimentally analysis. A Matlab code has also been developed to size biogas plants. Detailed
ultimate analysis and proximate of the food waste has been performed by using ultimate and
proximate analyzer respectively. The data has been collected and measured to be 505 kg/day
food waste from Ethiopian airlines different areas like food waste returned from different flight
services on the aircrafts, food waste from in-flight catering and food waste from the three
cafeterias. Based on the result, a total of 20.2m3/day biogas can be generated. Based on the
result, the kinetic model has been validated by using experimental data. The result also show that
the model can be used to know the real phenomena inside the reactor since the model fits with
the experimental data. Thus, by producing biogas from food waste, the food waste disposal can
be avoided and more than 119,000 Birr per month can be saved since Ethiopian airlines is
spending this amount of money for cooking purpose. Thus, this research will solve the energy
problems of Ethiopian Airlines and the biogas could be upgraded to generate electricity that is
going to be used for various applications.
Keywords: Kinetic Model, Experiment, Biogas, Food Waste
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Keywords
Kinetic Model; Experiment; Biogas; Food Waste