Anaerobic digestion as a technology to optimize the management of municipal organic waste in Colombia

A two stage dry-wet anaerobic digestion system pilot project, fed with the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) of a municipality of Antioquia, Colombia, is being developed. The system produces as byproducts: biogas with high methane content (55%- 60%), organic mineral liquid fertilizers and Renewable Solid Fuels (RSF), with significant positive environmental and economic impacts such as reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG), optimization of the lifetime of landfills, production of alternative energy, improvement of the environmental conditions of agro-ecosystems, possible reduction in waste management costs, environmental leadership, among others benefits to the municipalities. With a load of 1000 kg per week of OFMSW in the system, the pilot plant has shown a production of up to 2.4m3 biogas/day, which means yields of 33 liters of biogas and 0.3 liters of effluent per kg of organic matter.