Anaerobic co-digestion of cassava peels and manure: A technological approach for biogas generation and bio-fertilizer production

Abstract

The modern global society faces great challenges in supply of energy and management of wastes in sustainable ways. One way of resolving the local challenges is to develop environmentally appropriate and socio-economi-cally viable biotechnological processes for converting biomass to energy. The general principles of anaerobic bio-digestion, digester design and features of bio-digestion are presented in the feature article, focusing on the prospects of utilizing cassava peels as a readily available lignocellulose feedstock for co-digestion with manure for the production of biogas and bio-fertilizer. Aside of the high cyanogenic properties, cassava peels would re-quire pre-treatment before use as a substrate, hence, a multi-stage and high rate digestion system might be adop-ted in efficient digestion of cassava peels. To optimize carbon-nitrogen ratio for efficient digestion, cassava sh-ould be co-digested with manure. The socio-economic benefits of the anaerobic co-digestion technology and key policy measures to be implemented to harness bio-energy from agricultural wastes are also outlined