Biogas Synthesis as Means of Solid Waste Management in Kampala, Uganda

Cattle dung, cooked food waste, and chicken droppings mixed with coffee husks have been used separately and also as mixtures to form anaerobic digestion slurries in a bid to treat to degrade the organic fractions of these wastes and recycle the bio-fertilizer after recovering biogas. Single and mixed substrate slurries evolved significant quantities of methane within 27days together with reduced mass of soil conditioner. The volume of biogas formed in cogeneration mixtures were higher than for single substrate digestion due to the C/N ratio shifting to near 30:1 as a result of mixing. So degradation of organic pollutants was higher in mixed substrate digestion mixtures. Our study yielded average volumes ranging from 315 to 435+ 5.65.mL/L which was in agreement with what is in literature. Digestion of cattle dung, cooked waste foods, and droppings of chicken and mixed substrate slurries using sludge inoculums was very effective in degrading solid waste from homes, thus detoxifying it to bio-fertilizers. Although both single and mixed substrate digestion of waste yielded high enough volumes of biogas; digestion of slurry of mixed organic solid waste substrates is better method of waste management. Digestion of garbage from Kampala should be tested at macro levels at both ambient and mesophilic temperatures. There is need to try out the garbage digestion experiments in the semi-arid towns as well as very cold towns in Uganda.