LAUSR

The objective of this study is to evaluate the influence of the addition of garden waste (GW) on the performance of food waste (FW) anaerobic digestion. In this regard, a bench scale experiment was performed via biochemical methane potential test. The reactors were composed of flasks with a total volume of 310 mL and a useable volume of 120 mL, containing the waste mixtures in the different studied conditions. All reactors were incubated under 36 °C. A factorial design was used to evaluate the influence of three factors on methane production: inoculum and substrate ratio (I:S), volatile solid (VS) content of the mixture and type of substrate. The results indicated that the condition referred to an I:S ratio of 1:1, higher VS content (VSmix) and only FW as a substrate achieved the higher methane production and differed significantly from the others. This combination resulted in 67.5% of VS removal, 509 NmL of cumulative CH4 and a specific methane yield of 159 NmLCH4 gVS−1. The results obtained in this research indicated that the addition of GW on the anaerobic digestion of FW did not positively influence the methane production.