Utilization of Kitchen Waste for Generation of Fuel H.S. Jeswani 1 , Adwait Apte 2 , Vasavi Cheernam 3 , Madhusudan Kamat 4 Sudhanshu Kamat 5 , Parineeta Kashikar 6 1 Dean, Finance and Associate Professor, Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai, India, 2 Students, Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai, India Presenting author email: j_hansa@spce.ac.in; hansajeswani@gmail.com Abstract About 80% of homes in rural India meet their energy needs through solid biomass such as firewood, crop residue and cow dung. In urban areas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) supplied in portable cylinders is used in over 59% of homes. However, India being an oil scarce country and increased reliance of our country on costly imports, alternative measures of energy need to be pursued. The Bhavans’ college campus in Andheri West suburb of Mumbai has an area of 64 acres, consists of three colleges and three schools. There are around four canteens and three dining halls that utilize several LPG cylinders and generate high amount of kitchen waste every day. Kitchen waste can have as high calorific value (HCV) of around 17000 kJ/kg. Survey was conducted of all campus kitchens and tests were performed on their food wastes to determine the feasibility of extracting energy from them. The samples collected had high calorific value and organic content. The moisture content of these samples was moderate high; therefore anaerobic digestion was considered preferred waste to energy plan. The following study consists of characterisation of waste and designing an anaerobic digester that would produce cost effective, high quality methane gas from this food waste, which can be used to supplement the fuel requirements of the campus kitchen. Keywords: fuel; biogas; energy; calorific value 1.0 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 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]. 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 equipment, 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[3]. 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 [4]. Table 1: 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 It’s evident that the high income countries produce more waste per capita as compared to the low income countries. There is a country-wise classification of economies into the upper, middle and lower incomes.