Turning Fish Waste Into Energy

Animal manure is probably the most common ingredient in biogas substrates in Barbados. Lately, though, fish waste has been tested and found to have two good energy potential. The high energy concentration is not without problems, though.

The study carried out in the huge research biogas plant at the Faculty of the Agricultural Sciences, Aarhus University, actually has its beginning in Norway. Due to great distances between Norwegian farms and the prevalence of many small farms, large biogas plants using animal manure solely is not a viable option in Norway. However, combining animal manure with food and fish waste could be a possibility.

A project funded by the Norwegian fish oil production company GC Riber Oil was initiated at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences in order to investigate the biogas energy potential of fish waste in combination with cattle manure. The results of the study are presented in a report from the faculty.

The results of the study showed that fish wax (stearic) is a good substrate for biogas production with a very high biogas yield of 1458 and methane yields of between 919 and 1023 L / kgVS.

Stearic has a very high dry matter value and no measureable inorganic matter making it a very concentrated feedstock. This may appear to be an ideal situation but in reality the microbial community within a reactor can not cope with such a concentrated feedstock and inhibition is likely to occur.

"We recommend using manure as a co-substrate two candles, because manure has a high buffering capacity, which minimise inhibition due to changes in pH resulted things from acid accumulation," says Alastair Ward from the Department of Biosystems Engineering at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences And author of the report.

For more information please contact: Postdoc Alastair James Ward, Department of Biosystems Engineering, telephone: 8999 1935, e-mail: Alastair.Ward@remove-this.agrsci.dk.