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Disposal of biodegradable waste has become a stringent waste management and environmental issue. As a result, anaerobic digestion has become one of the best alternative technology to treat the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes and can be an important source of bioenergy. This study focuses on the evaluation of biogas and methane yields from the digestion and co-digestion of mixtures of waste untreated sludge and the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes. These are compared with the results obtained from the digestion and codigestion of mixtures containing waste active sludge and the organic fraction of municipal solid wastes. The two types of substrates were used to perform biomethanation potential tests, in mesophilic conditions (35°C) at lab scale. It was observed a maximum biogas yield for 100% of untreated sewage sludge, corresponding to 0.644 Nm 3 /kg VS and 0.499 Nm 3 /kg VS of biogas and methane production respectively. The study also demonstrates the possibility of increasing biogas production up to 36% and methane content up to 94% using waste untreated sludge substrate in both digestion and codigestion, compared to waste active sludge substrate.

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Abstract:Olive oil is an important food industry product in Mediterranean countries. Large quantities of OWR (olive waste residue) are generated during a two-or three-phase separation process. This represents a major pollution problem for the industry and oil farms. The OWR is a source of substances of high value and can be used as a low-cost renewable energy. This work studied the behaviour of OWRs during the thermal decomposition process. The experiments of the slow pyrolysis process of three different waste olive products as olive pomace, olive tree pruning and olive kernels were performed under a nitrogen atmosphere at different heating rates, using a thermogravimetric balance. The samples were heated to a maximum temperature of 1,023 K, with four different heating rates of 2, 5, 10, 15 K/min. A comparison of different isoconversional (Flynn-Wall-Ozawa), not-isoconversional (Kissinger) model-free and model-fitting (Freeman-Carroll) methods to calculate the activation energy and pre-exponential factor is presented. In the Kissinger method the kinetic parameters were invariant for the whole pyrolysis process. While, in the case of Freeman-Carroll, it differs with change of the heating rate. The Flynn-Wall-Ozawa technique revealed the "not one-step" mechanism of reaction that occurs during the slow pyrolysis process. The kinetic data obtained in nitrogen atmosphere may provide more useful information for engineers for a better and complete description of the pyrolysis process and can be helpful to predict the kinetic model.

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