Nonlinear kinetic modelling of anaerobic biodegradation of fruit, vegetable waste along with oil

Experiments were conducted with vegetables (Potato, Carrot, Spinach), fruits (Grapes, Orange) and cooked oil collected from restaurants, in 6 litre laboratory reactors operated in batch mode with organic loading rate ranging from 1.0 – 6.0 g·[VS]/l. The kinetics of biogas production under the co-digestion was studied using first order exponential, Fitzhugh and Cone model. The goodness of models fit to the observed data was first checked by calculating the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. A matrix of p-values for testing the hypothesis of no correlation was also determined. Results showed that all models perform well comparatively with the observed data. Estimated degradation rate constants were similar for the vegetables and fruits co-digestion but different in the case of the co-digestion with oil