Abstract—India’s economic growth is contributing to a massive increase in the generation of solid waste. Approximately 55 million tones of Municipal Solid Waste is generated annually by urban areas in India. Over 59% of homes in urban India use Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) supplied in portable cylinders for their cooking needs. However, due to our country’s dwindling petroleum reserves and increased costly imports of petroleum, non conventional energy resources are slowly gaining importance. The use of biogas using kitchen waste as feedstock can help solve the problem of energy deficit and at the same time, allow the safe disposal of kitchen waste which is often unscientifically dumped or discarded. Our institute campus (Bhavans’ campus) has a number of campus kitchens that utilize several LPG cylinders and also generate large amounts of kitchen waste. The kitchen waste generated has high calorific value and moisture content; hence it can be anaerobically digested. The biogas produced can be used to supplement the fuel requirements of the campus kitchens that generate the kitchen waste. This study consists of carrying out survey, characterization of kitchen waste from several kitchens and exploring it’s potential to be used for biogas production. Index Terms—Biogas, municipal solid waste, kitchen waste, calorific value. I. INTRODUCTION Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is defined as any waste generated by household, commercial and/or institutional activities and is not hazardous [1]. With rapid urbanization, the quantities of municipal solid waste, an important by-product of an urban lifestyle, is increasing at a rate faster than urbanization itself. In India, ten years ago, there were 2.9 billion urban residents, each generating 0.64 kg/capita/day of MSW. Today, there are about 3 billion residents generating 1.2 kg/capita/day. It is estimated that by 2025, these numbers will increase to 4.3 billion urban residents with 1.42 kg/capita/day of MSW [2]. Waste generation is directly related to the economy of a country. There can be variations in the generation rates within a country, and even within the same city. Industrial countries account for a large portion of the world’s MSW relative to their share of world population, while developing countries give a large portion of MSW relative to their share of world income. Classification of the regions of the world based on their affluence provides a more organized outlook to waste Manuscript recevied January 10, 2013; revised April 4, 2013. This work was supported in part by the TEQIP Phase II A. Apte, V. Cheernam, M. Kamat, S. Kamat, and P. Kashikar are with Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Affliated to Mumbai University, Andheri (W), Mumbai, India. H. Jeswani is with Civil Engineering Department Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Andheri (W), Mumbai, India (e-mail: hansajeswani@gmail.com). generation rates and waste management practices. The World Bank has classified the 188 World Bank member countries based on the Gross National Income per capita (GNI) [3]. It’s evident for Table I that the high income countries produce more waste per capita as compared to the low income countries. TABLE I: WASTE GENERATION RATES Income Level Waste generation (kg/capita/day) High 0.7-14 Upper Middle 0.11-5.5 Lower Middle 0.16-5.3 Lower 0.09-4.3 There is a country-wise classification of economies into the upper, middle and lower incomes. However, in a single country itself, the affluence varies among the population. For e.g., in India and China, there is disproportionately high urban waste generation per capita relative to overall economic status. This is because they have very high poor rural populations that dilute their economic status [4]. Solid Waste Management (SWM) is an organized process of storage, collection, transportation, processing and disposal of solid refuse residuals in an engineered sanitary landfill. It is an integrated process comprising several collection methods, varied transportation equipments, storage, recovery mechanisms for recyclable material, reduction of waste volume and quantity by methods such as composting, waste-to-power and disposal in a designated engineered sanitary landfill [5]. A major part of MSW is generated from urban areas i.e. cities and bigger towns. India is primarily a country with a huge rural population. However, it is estimated that about 40% of the Indian population will move towards urban areas by 2026. Currently, an estimated 48 million tonnes of solid waste and 4,400 million cubic meters of liquid waste are generated every year in the urban areas of the country. As per the study of “National Master Plan for Development of Waste to Energy in India”, 17 (6%) cities have generation rate in excess of 1000 TPD, 80 (26%) cities generate between 150-1000 TPD and balance 202 (68%) cities generate less than 150 TPD. The MSW ranges from 250 gm to 700 gm per day per person with an average of 490 gm per day per person [6]. A study conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) on MSW management in India shows that waste generation is estimated to increase rapidly at present from 490 gm per person per day to 945 gm per person per day which would result in 300 million tonnes per year from 48 million tonnes per year by the year 2047. To tackle the yearly 5% increase of waste in urban India, urban local bodies are investing around 35-50% of its available funds yearly, spending about Rs. 500-1500 per ton on solid waste management. In view of growing challenge, Potential of Using Kitchen Waste in a Biogas Plant A. Apte, V. Cheernam, M. Kamat, S. Kamat, P. Kashikar, and H. Jeswani International Journal of Environmental Science and Development, Vol. 4, No. 4, August 2013 370 DOI: 10.7763/IJESD.2013.V4.373