UTILIZATION OF ONION WASTES AND PIG MANURE

IN THE PRODUCTION OF METHANE GAS

A Research Paper Submitted in the Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements in Research II

Frederick Jay A. Agliam

Project Leader

Albert V. Alvaran
Venice Anne Avendao
Rhonalyn T. Guiang
Marielle F. Mercado
Project Proponents

FELERMA G. URBANO
Research Adviser

01 July 2013
INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Solid waste generation is gradually increasing with the passage of time due to
population explosion and urbanization. Philippines has an abundant supply of biomass
resources, such as agricultural crop residues, forest residues, animal wastes, agroindustrial wastes and municipal solid wastes offering much potential for clean energy
generation (Worldbank, 2013).
Onion is one of the most important commercial vegetable crops grown in the
Philippines. In 2012, a total production of 84,800 metric tons was recorded for red creole
and yellow granex (BAS, 2013). However, the major problem in onion production is high
postharvest losses. During harvesting alone, losses at the farmers level was reported to
about 5 % which accounts for the unmarketable rejects (removed and left at the farm),
particularly the immature, bruised, diseased and onions not uprooted by the harvesters
(DA-BPRE & UPLB-PSSD, 2009). The solid wastes such as trimmed leaves of red
creole and yellow granex onion varieties are also generated during harvesting.
Onion wastes including rejects and residuals during harvesting could create
economic and environmental problems when not properly disposed. When dumped in
open spaces or in landfills, onion wastes being rich in organic matter get easily
decomposed which produces different gases like methane and carbon dioxide. Apart from
this, the open decomposed organic matter acts as breeding ground of various
microorganisms causing diseases. For instance, leachate from dumped waste have the
potential to cause water pollution of surface and ground water (Salem et al., 2008), hence,
necessitating the application of alternative strategies to convert these wastes into a usable
form. Through anaerobic process, crop residues can be digested either alone or in codigestion with other materials such as animal manure.
3

Animal production in the Philippines is characterized by the combination of

smallholder, semi-intensive and large scale livestock enterprises. With increasing
urbanization, there is also a scaling up for broiler and swine production to meet food
demand of the increasing human population that is moving towards urban centers. Due to
scaling up of animals, the manure produces by these animals also increases. As obvious
adverse consequence, animal and human health, hygiene, food safety animal welfare and
the environment will be affected because of odorous characteristic of manure.
In the agricultural sector, one possible solution to process crop waste is to codigestion together with animal manure through anaerobic digestion. Anaerobic digestion
is a controlled biological degradation process that allows efficient capturing and utilizing
biogas (approximately 60% methane and 40% carbon dioxide) for energy generation.
This process happens naturally when bacteria break down organic matter in the
environment with little or no oxygen. It is a well-studied technique for organic waste
biodegradation (Mata-Alvarez et al., 2000). The digestate from anaerobic digesters
contains many nutrients and can, thus, be used as plant fertilizer and soil conditioner.
Controlled anaerobic digestion of animal manure reduces the emission of
greenhouse gases, nitrogen and odor, and intensifies the recycling of nutrients within
agriculture. Co-digestion of onion waste and animal manure offers good opportunity for
farmers to treat their own residues properly. It also generates additional revenues by
treating and managing organic waste from different sources.
This research determined the potential biogas yield of co-digesting onion wastes
(i.e. leaves trimmings and culled onion bulbs) and pig manure through anaerobic
digestion.

Statement of the Problem

Generally, the study aims to utilize onion wastes and pig manure in the production
of biogas.
It sought answers to the following specific questions:
1. Does the characteristic of waste sample and the treatment combination affect the
biogas production in terms of pH level and moisture content?
2. Which treatment gives the highest biogas yield?
3. Which treatment gives the fastest production of biogas?
Hypotheses
1. The characteristic of waste sample and the treatment combination affect the
biogas production.
2. Treatment 2 gives the highest biogas yield after 6 weeks
3. Treatment 2 gives the fastest production of biogas

Significance of the Study

Agricultural and animal wastes are life threatening hazards when not properly
disposed or utilized. Decomposed organic matter produces different gases like methane
and carbon dioxide, both of which contribute to the greenhouse effect leading to global
warming. Onion wastes left in the farm during harvest season and pig manure giving off
unpleasant smell, also serves as breeding ground of various disease causing organisms
when not properly managed.
However, these organic wastes have a full potential when converted into useful
energy, specifically, biogas. Biogas is generated when bacteria degrade biological
material in the absence of oxygen, known as anaerobic digestion. It will contain typically
carbon dioxide and about 60% of methane gas, along with small amounts of nitrogen,
oxygen, water vapor, hydrogen sulfide and various organic compounds. Since biogas is a
mixture of methane and carbon dioxide, it is a renewable fuel produced from waste
treatment.

The production of biogas through anaerobic digestion offers significant

advantages over other forms of waste treatment, including: (1) less biomass sludge is
produced in comparison to aerobic treatment technologies; (2) the slurry produced
(digestate) is an improved fertilizer in terms of both its availability to plants (Tafdrup,
1995) and its rheology (Pain and Hepherd, 1995); (3) successful in treating wet wastes of
less than 40% dry matter (Mata-Alvarez, 2002); (4) a source of carbon neutral energy is
produced in the form of biogas.
This study presented the biodegradation of onion waste and pig manure to yield
biogas by using improvised anaerobic batch digester made from locally available
materials. The success of this study will provide the onion farmers and backyard pig
raisers a process on how to treat their own residues properly and convert their waste into
renewable energy.
Scope and Delimitations
This study focused mainly on the production of biogas from pig manure and
onion wastes such as leaves trimming and immature onion bulbs left at the farm during
harvest season. The experimental trials were conducted for six weeks at the Philippines
Center for Postharvest Development and Mechanization (PHilMech). The experiment
was limited to experimental set-up at ambient condition due to budget constraints.
Furthermore, due to limited period of study, each batch of experiment was conducted for
42-day digestion period using onion wastes of yellow granex variety only. Treatment
combinations with less than 15%organic matter were studied in order to manage the gas
collection in a practical way. The parameters gathered were initial and final pH of
mixture at the digester, biogas production and methane composition of biogas produced.
Review of Related Literature
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Co-digestion of sludges with agricultural wastes can improve the methane

production of anaerobic digestion processes (Angelidaki and Ellegaard, 2003; Bolzonella
et al., 2006; Gomez et al., 2006; Romano and Zhang, 2008) and has been recently
reviewed (Alatriste-Mondragon et al., 2006). The co-digestion of cattle manure with
MSW (Callaghan et al., 1999; Hartmann and Ahring, 2005) has also been shown to
enhance methane production. In the study of Zhang (2006), he reported that the physical
and chemical characteristics of the organic waste are important information for designing
and operating anaerobic digesters. The biodegradability of a feedstock is indicated by
biogas or methane yield and percentage of solids (total solids or volatile solids) that are
destroyed in the anaerobic digestion. The biogas or methane yield is measured by the
amount of biogas or methane that can be produced per unit of volatile solids contained in
the feedstock after subjecting it to anaerobic digestion for a sufficient amount of time
under a given temperature.
Pre-treatment of feedstocks can increase biogas production and volatile solids
reduction (Tiehm et al., 2001) and increased solubilization (Tanaka et al., 1997). The use
of pre-treatments is particularly useful in the digestion of biomass feedstocks, as these
tend to be high in cellulose or lignin. Particle size can affect the rate of anaerobic
digestion as it affects the availability of a substrate (i.e. the surface area) to hydrolyzing
enzymes, and this is particularly true with plant fibres: fibre degradation and methane
yield improve with decreasing particle size from 100 mm to 2 mm (Mshandete et al.,
2006).
Culled onion bulb is one of the examples of onion waste. Culled onion bulb
contains 89% of water (H2O), 4% of sugar (C12H22O11), 1% of protein, 2% of fiber and
0.1% of fat (Block, 2010).

Biogas production is a key technology for the sustainable use of agrarian biomass
as renewable energy source. High energy yields per hectare can be achieved through
biogas production. Biogas can be produced from a wide range of energy crops, animal
manures and organic wastes. Thus, it offers a high flexibility and can be adapted to the
specific needs of contrasting locations and farm managements. After anaerobic digestion,
the digestion residues can be used as a valuable fertilizer for agricultural crops (Amon et
al, 2007). In order to access the energy potential of the materials, the long chains must
firstly be broken down to their smaller components such as sugars being readily available
for other bacteria. This process is so called hydrolysis. The hydrolysis step degrades both
insoluble organic material and high molecular weight compounds such as lipids,
polysaccharides, proteins and nucleic acids, into soluble organic substances (e.g. amino
acids and fatty acids). The components formed during hydrolysis are further split during
acidogenesis, the second step. Volatile fatty acids are produced by acidogenic (or
fermentative) bacteria along with ammonia, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and other
by-products (Appeals et al., 2008). The third step is acetogenesis, where the carbonic
acids and alcohols are further digested by acetogens to produce mainly acetic acids as
well as hydrogen and carbon dioxide. Finally, methanogenesis produces methane by two
groups of methanogenic bacteria: the first group splits acetate into methane and carbon
dioxide and the second group uses hydrogen as electron donor and carbon dioxide as
acceptor to produce methane.

Figure 1. Stages of biogas production

Fruit and vegetable wastes tend to have low total solids and high volatile solids,
and are easily degraded in an anaerobic digester. The rapid hydrolysis of these feedstocks
may lead to acidification of a digester and the consequent inhibition of methanogenesis. It
was discovered in the late 1970s and early 1980s that many carbohydrate-rich
feedstocks were found to require either co-digestion with other feedstocks or addition of
alkaline buffer to ensure stable performance (Hills and Roberts, 1996; Knol et al.,
1995).Using manures for biogas production reduces thevolume of greenhouse gasses
normally released during storage (Husted, 1995; Moller et al., 2004a,b).
Review of Related Studies
Anaerobic digestion is a biological process in which bacteria digest biomass in an
oxygen-free environment and produce a gas principally composed of methane (CH 4) and
carbon dioxide (CO2), otherwise known as biogas. The process of anaerobic digestion
consists of three basic steps. The first step is the decomposition or hydrolysis of plant or
animal matter. This step breaks down the organic material to usable-sized molecules such
as sugar. The second step is the conversion of decomposed matter to organic acids. And
finally, the acids are converted to biogas. The biogas can be used to co-generate heat and
electricity, or it can be scrubbed (separated into purified streams of gases) and

compressed into a liquid fuel or used as an industrial chemical base for creating other
products. In addition to biogas, anaerobic digesters can produce raw material by-product
streams that can be further refined into higher value products such as fertilizer.
To be able to support this study, the researchers gathered many related studies and
one of the studies were conducted by Gary Hawkins (2013) entitled Converting Onion
Waste into Energy as a Co-digestant with Dairy Waste. This study aimed to
investigate the feasibility of using culled onions in conjunction with dairy waste to
produce methane gas. The experiment used 90 liter down flow anaerobic filters to process
a 50/50 mix of onion juice and dairy waste. Results from this study indicate the codigestion of culled onions and dairy waste provides a good way to dispose of the waste
onions while at the same time producing a renewable energy that can potentially be used
in the packing shed where the onions are separated. The 50/50 blend of onion waste and
dairy waste has consistently returned an average of 15 liters of biogas (70-75% methane)
per 3 liters of mixed waste entering the digesters with a cleaning efficiency over 85%.
Another study conducted by M.R. Santos, A. P. De Leon, M. A. Macaraeg, J.G.
Rambaud and G.C. Tanawan (2013) entitled Utilization of Household and Market
Wastes for Biogas Production. This project aims to provide natural and effective
utilization of disposing organic wastes such as rotten fruits and vegetable and fish gills
and intestines as probable source of biogas. Approximately 93 liters of feedstock was
gathered and fermented for 15 days. The feedstocks were divided into three groups:
Treatment 1 (Organic waste + 2% inoculants), Treatment 2 (Organic wastes +4%
inoculants) and Treatment 3 (Organic waste + 6% inoculants). The methane content of

10

the biogas was measured using the methane analyser. The pressure content of the biogas
was measured with the use of pressure gauge that was attached to portable digesters.
Results revealed that Treatment 3 (Organic waste + 6% inoculants) had the highest
methane content with 55.59 %. It is significantly comparable to treatment 1 with 54.65%.
It is therefore concluded that rotten fruits, vegetables, fish gills and intestines can be
source of biogas.
Another study conducted by I.R. Ilaboya, F.F. Asekhame, M.O. Ezugwu, A.A.
Eraameh and F.E. Omufuma (2010) entitled Studies on Biogas Generation From
Agricultural Waste; Analysis of the Effects of Alkaline on Gas generation. The focus
of this study was to investigate the importance of biogas as an alternative energy sources.
A survey was done to ascertain the amount of biogas that can be generated from various
feed stock. A practical laboratory scale experimental design using agricultural waste was
also done to find out the effects of Alkaline (Noah) on the volume of biogas generated
using a mixture of pineapple, plantain and cassava peelings as the feed stock. Results
obtained reveal a high volume of gas generated when the operating conditions inside the
digester is maintained at moderately alkaline condition. Further findings also reveal that
the digester temperature remained within the range of 27 to 35.5C throughout the period
of experimentation.
Jia, et al. (2011) conducted a research entitled Bioethanol Production Process
with Simultaneous Biogas Production. In this study, purification of the waste water
from corn stover-based bioethanol production process with simultaneous biogas
production. They investigated a combined system, which was based on thermophilic

11

anaerobic digestion in a fluidized bed reactor (AFBR), an aerobic airlift loop reactor
(ALR), and a biological aerated filter (BAF). High strength distillery wastewater and high
ammonia nitrogen content pretreatment wastewater were used as the influents. In the
thermophilic anaerobic process (5455C), the methane yield of 280 10.1 ml/g-COD
removed was obtained at organic loading rate (OLR) of 14.1 0.21 g-COD/l day and
hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 48 h in the AFBR. Then co-digestion of anaerobic
effluent and pretreatment wastewater was carried out in the ALR. COD and NH4 +N
average removal rate of 88.5 1.5% and 96.7 1.2% were obtained at HRT of 10 h,
temperature of 3033C and superficial gas velocity ( g ) of 12 mm/s. The aerobic
effluent was finally purified in the BAF operated at ambient temperature and HRT of 5 h
with simultaneous removal of COD, NH4 +N and chroma. Final effluent with COD and
NH4 +N concentrations of 65.1 5.1 mg/l and 3.9 0.5 mg/l was obtained with other
main indexes satisfying the primary discharge standards for the ethanol industry in China.
The study of Wan Azlina Wan Ab Karim Ghani and Azni Idris (2009) entitled
Preliminary Study On Biogas Production Of Biogas From Municipal Solid Waste
(Msw) Leachate was conducted to investigate the effect of leachate chemical oxygen
demand strength on biogas (methane) production using Laboratory Scale Digester. Three
sets of experiment were performed using municipal solid waste leachate slurry with two
different chemical oxygen demand strength strengths namely 3000 and 21000 mg/L
(referred as low and high strength, respectively). The experiments were conducted at a
controlled temperature of 35C and pH ranging from 6.8 to 7.3 over 20 days period. The
process performance was evaluated based on the biogas production and pollutants
removal efficiencies. Results showed that the high and low strength samples performed
12

quite similarly but with different biogas production rate observed. The biochemical
oxygen demand in the effluent removed up to 80%, but the performance of other
parameters such as chemical oxygen demand, total suspended solid and volatile
suspended solid was slightly decreased which contributes 33 to 46%,21 to 37% and 20 to
35%, respectively. From this study, it can be concluded that this method not only
contributed to renewable biogas production but also improved the effluent quality.

Definition of Terms
Agricultural Waste this is example of organic waste; this waste includes onion waste
consisting trimmed leaves and culled onion bulb, and other farm crops that is
left by the farmer
Anaerobic Digestion the process of decomposition of organic matter by a microbial
consortium in an oxygen-free environment (Pain and Hepherd, 1995). It is a
process found in many naturallyoccurring anoxic environments including
watercourses, sediments,waterlogged soils and the mammalian gut. It can also
be applied toa wide range of feedstocks including industrial and municipalwaste
waters, agricultural, municipal, food industry wastes, andplant residues.
Biogas mixture of carbon dioxide and methane produce by decomposing organic
matter, it will typically contain carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor,
hydrogen sulfide and 50-75% of special gas called methane gas
Trimmed Onion Leaves this is example of onion waste, this is one of the factor why
onion waste reach in tons of tons of waste
Culled Onion Bulbs - one of the examples of onion waste; contains 89% of water
(H2O), 4% of sugar (C12H22O11), 1% of protein, 2% of fiber and 0.1% of
fat(Block, 2010).
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Pig Manure one the most odorous dung; the leading problem of many smallholders;
contains bacteria such as methanogens which useful in biogas production.

Research Paradigm

The research paradigm that used in this study consists of three interacting major

components namely: independent variable, dependent variable and extraneous variable.

The independent variable includes onion wastes and pig manure while the dependent
variable covers production of biogas that is to be affected by the various treatments.
Moreover, there were other factors that somehow rendered on the results of this
experiment. These were classified as extraneous variable consisting the following:
amount of the water, kind and level of treatments, types of digester used and the length of
fermentation.
The schematic diagram of interaction is shown.

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

Onion Wastes and

Pig Manure

Production of biogas

14

Extraneous Variable

Amount of water
Kind and level of treatments
Types of digester used
Length of Fermentation

Figure 2. Variables involved in the study

METHODOLOGY

Collection and Pre-treatment of Samples

Onion wastes consisting of trimmed leaves and culled onion bulbs were
collected in the vicinity of Science City of Muoz, Nueva Ecija. Prior to the preparation
of experimental set-up, the trimmed leaves were sorted, sundried and coarsely grind using
hammermill. The ground leaves were packed and labeled. Culled onion bulbs were sorted
and placed in a well-ventilated area to prevent deterioration until use. Fresh pig manure
was collected in a nearby backyard pig raiser and collected only on the scheduled digester
content preparation.
Fabrication and Preparation of the Experimental Set-Up
The experimental set-up (Figure 3) constituted of two glass bottles with screw
cap connected with a hose and a graduated cylinder. Glass bottles with 1.2L effective
volume were used as digester and gas storage. The digesters cap has two holes to
facilitate gas measurement and gas transfer to the gas storage bottle using polyurethane

15

plastic hose.The bottle lid was lined with thread seal tape and was sealed with screw cap.
The outer portion of the cap was further sealed using rubber tape to ensure that no gas
will escape through it.
The glass bottle that served as gas storage was filled with 1L water to determine
the amount of gas produced by water displacement method. The gas storage cap has two
holes which allow the entry of gas from the digester and the displacement of water to the
graduated cylinder. The water was colored with blue dye to see clearly the amount of
water displaced. The graduated cylinder holds the water that was displaced from the gas
storage bottle.

Figure 3 .Batch Anaerobic Digester Set-up

16

A 46cm long with 5mm diameter polyurethane plastic hose was installed
connecting two bottles to facilitate the transfer of gas from the digester to the gas storage
bottle. Another 10cm long plastic hose, with the same specifications, was fitted on the
digesters cap to act as gas sampling port. This is where methane concentration reading is
done.To facilitate displacement of water from gas storage bottle to the graduated cylinder,
a 60cm long hose was mounted. Displacement of water is not possible if there is gas leak.
To prevent gas leakage, a tubing clamp was fitted into the hose to prevent escape of gas.
Moreover, all caps were sealed with thread seal tape and rubber tape, and all hose fitted to
caps were sealed using quick dry epoxy.
Preparation of Waste Materials
Culled onion bulbs were finely diced while onion leaves were coarsely ground and both
were weighed according to set proportions (Tables 1 and 2) using Ohaus digital analytical
balance.The initial moisture content of the onion wastes was determined using Adam
Infrared Moisture Analyzer. The onion wastes were blended with water using Waring
Blender and poured to the digester with the aid of funnel. Then, the pig manure was
added and was stirred manually by shaking until the manure was dissolved. For each
batch, a control set-up which contains only pig manure and water was prepared in order
to compare the effect of co-digestion with onion wastes. The digesters were sealed
immediatelyand labeled. The operating volume of the digester was 800ml for all
treatments. The sludge from the digesters were placed in a big container and boiled for 1
hour to ensure that the bacteria present in the treatment will not cause contamination.
Characteristics of the Waste Sample
The average waste samples for diced onion bulb, ground onion leaves and pig
manure were taken using Adam Infrared Moisture Analyzer. Also, the initial pH and final

17

pH of the treatment combinations were measured using Whatman pH Indicator Paper

Strips. The final pH was taken after digestion trial. Then, the ambient temperature at the
experimental area was obtained. It is important to know the characteristic of the waste
sample and treatment combinations because it will affect the bacteria called
methanogens, which is responsible in producing biogas.
Data Gathering Procedure
The digesters for all treatments were contained in one building. The biogas
production was monitored and measured weekly by water displacement. Moreover,
methane concentration of the biogas produced was measured using a portable methane
analyzer through the gas sampling port. The biogas production and methane composition
reading were done only at 5 pm on the day of measurement. Every after measurement,
the digesters were constantly stirred to ensure efficient transfer of organic material for the
active microbes, to release gas bubbles trapped in the medium and to prevent
sedimentation of denser particulate material.
Determining the Biogas Yield and Rate of Biogas Production
The data gathered were tabulated and computed for the average biogas produced.
Comparison of the total average biogas produced in all treatments was done. The
treatment that gives the highest average produced biogas was considered as the treatment
that got the highest biogas yield.
Comparison of all treatment for rate of biogas yield was also done. The length of
time is the basis for determination for rate of biogas production. The treatment went in
short period of time in production of biogas was considered as the most fastest in
production of biogas.
Effect of Onion Waste in Biogas Production
Culled onion bulb and trimmed onion leaves with different ratios of pig manure
was prepared with three treatment each and three replication each. Control for culled
18

onion bulb and control for trimmed onion leaves was also prepared with three treatment
each and three replication each. This set-up was done to determine the effect of onion
waste in biogas production. The total average biogas produced for onion waste was
compared to the total average biogas produced for control set-up.
Experimental Design
Simple Complete Randomized Design (CRD) was applied to analyze the data
obtained from different treatment.
Table 1. Treatment combinations for the co-digestion of culled onion bulb and pig
manure.
Treatment
Combination
T1

Water, ml

Leaves, g

Manure, g

768

16

16

T2

768

9.6

22.4

T3

768

22.4

9.6

Table 2. Treatment combinations for the co-digestion of dried onion leaves and pig
manure

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Treatment
Combination
T1

Water, ml

Bulbs, g

Manure, g

720

40

40

T2

720

24

56

T3

720

56

24

Mixture containing ratios of 50/50, 30/70 and 70/30 percent of culled onion
bulb or leaves to pig manure were used in this study. The ratio of water was constant with
90% and 96% of the digesters effective volume for culled onion bulbs and onion leaves,
respectively.
Thirty-six digesters with operating volume of 800ml were set up for all
treatments including the set-up for the control. All the treatments were ensiled for 42 days
under anaerobic condition. Homogenization of the waste sample is very important to
ensure representative sampling.
Statistical Analysis
The experiment was laid in Complete Randomized Design (CBD) and data were
analyzed using two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Experimental Procedure

Collection of Onion Waste and Pig Manure

Sorting

Grinding

Drying
20

Chopping

Fabrication and Preparation of the

Preparation of Waste Materials

Post-treatment of Sludge

Data Gathering Procedures

Determining the Highest, Fastest and Effect of

Experimental Design and Statistical Analysis

Figure 4. Flow diagram of the procedures employed in the study
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Selected organic waste such as pig manure and onion waste consisting trimmed
leaves and culled onion bulb were evaluated as potential source of biogas. Trimmed
leaves and culled onion bulbs were collected in the vicinity of Science City of Muoz,
Nueva Ecija while fresh pig manure was collected nearby backyard pig raiser.
Characteristics of the Experimental Sample
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The characteristics of experimental sample were evaluated to know if the

treatment has the ability to produce biogas. The evaluation techniques were measurement
of initial and final pH, temperature and moisture content of the treatment combination.
The initial and final pH is shown in Table 3.
a) Initial and Final pH
Table 3. The average initial and final pH of onion bulb
Treatment Combination (Water-Onion

Average Initial pH

Waste-Manure)
T1 (720-40-40)
7
T2 (720-24-56)
7
T3 (720-56-24)
7
Control (720-0-40)
8
Table 4. The average initial and final pH of onion leaves

Average Final
pH
8
8
5
8

As revealed in Table 3 and Table 4, the initial and final pH readings varied from
Treatment Combination (Water-Onion
Average Initial pH
Average Final
Waste-Manure)
pH
T1 (768-16-16)
7
8
T2 (768-9.6-22.4)
7
8
T3 (768-22.4-9.6)
7
5
Control (768-0-16)
8
8
7.0-8.0 for culled onion bulled and trimmed onion leaves. The optimal pH range to
produce biogas was 7.0-8.0. In this exact pH range, the methanogenic bacteria was on
active state and the rapid growth of microorganism has occurred. When the pH is less
than 7.0 or greater than 8.0, it is necessary to add up chemicals in order to get the pH
range of 7.0-8.0. Since, the initial pH of the treatment ranges from 7.0-8.0, the treatment
combination of waste sample was sufficient to produce biogas. Bulb-T 3 (Table 3) and
Leaves-T3 (Table 4), also shows that some pH decline to 5.0, which means, that those
treatment got the pH of 5.0 stop in producing biogas. Moreover, both table shows that

22

most of the treatments got the final pH of 8.0; this explains that those treatment
combinations have a possibility to produce biogas.
A range of pH values suitable for anaerobic digestion has been reported by
various researchers, but the optimal pH for methanogenesis has been found to be around
7.0 (Huber et al., 1982; Yang and Okos, 1987). Similarly, Lee et al. (2009) reported that
methanogenesis in an anaerobic digester occurs efficiently at a pH range of 6.5 to 8.2,
while hydrolysis and acidogenesis occurs at pH 5.5 and 6.5, respectively (Kim et al.,
2003).
b) Moisture Content and Temperature
The average moisture content of the experimental samples were 49.8 %, 10.7%
and 71.7% for diced onion bulb, ground onion leaves and pig manure, respectively. Due
to its dry property, the onion leaves absorb much of the water making the treatment hard
to mix. According to Department of Energy and Environment (2010), it is important to
get the moisture content of substrate, because this will be the basis for the needed water
in the substrate. Thats why leaves have a water content of 768mL, because it has the
moisture content of 10.7% in order to prevent concentrated substrate.
The average ambient temperature at the experimental area was 30 oC at daytime
and 29oC at night time. It is important to maintain a stable operating temperature, since
sharp and/or frequent fluctuations in temperature affect the bacteria, especially the
methanogens. Process failure can occur at temperature changes in excess of 1oC/day
(Turovskiy at al., 2006).

Biogas Yield

23

The amount of biogas produced was monitors by measuring the water displaced
weekly. The analysis was done on a weekly done on a weekly basis for six weeks,
analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze.

Table 5. Total Production of Biogas in Onion Bulb

Treatment
T1
T2
T3
Control

1
684.00
858.00
343.50
813.80

Replicate
2
857.00
791.00
349.70
846.20

Mean
3
649.50
867.50
390.50
817.50

730.17a
838.83a
361.23b
825.83b

*Any means having the same letter are not significantly different at 5% level

Table 6. Total Production of Biogas in Onion Leaves

Treatment
T1
T2
T3
Control

1
713.70
761.50
634.50
479.80

Replicate
2
838.50
827.60
554.00
530.80

Mean
3
844.30
630.00
513.50
390.30

798.83a
739.70a
567.33b
466.97b

*Any means having the same letter are not significantly different at 5% level

As shown in Table 5 and Table 6, T2 (Table 5) gave the highest biogas yield and
T3 (Table 5) gave the lowest biogas yield. Biogas produced in T 2 (Table 5) was 838.34mL
while in T3 (Table 5) was 361.23mL. T3 (Table 5) gave the lowest biogas yield because its
final pH is 5.0 which cause the production of biogas stops. Also, both tables show that all
24

treatments are not significantly different at 5% level of significance. Furthermore, both

tables show that almost all treatment got high biogas yield, this implies, onion waste has
a potential in production of biogas. Furthermore, the presence of onion waste in
feed cause biogas production more than twice as it compares to feed
without onion waste. In other word, the substrates contain manure are
statistically gave the significant effect (p<0.05) to biogas production.
This was suggested that high concentration of anaerobic bacteria
content in onion waste works effectively to degrade organic substrate
from manure. According to Aurora (2000) animals manure contains the
highly anaerobic bacteria dominated by cellulolytic bacteria able to
biodegrade cellulose material from organic waste. This is agree with
other results of researcher before that amount of biogas produced
seemed proportional to the initial inoculums (Castillo, 1995) and the
bovine manure had a strong effect on anaerobic biostabilization of
fermentable organic fraction of municipal solid waste (Lopes, 2004); as
well as the higher percentage of organic waste gave the higher
production of biogas (Forster-Carneiro, 2008). Finally, the most important
finding from this research can be drawn the conclusion that the onion
waste seeded to batch digester has significant effect to biogas
production.

25

Rate of Biogas Production

The number of days in producing biogas was evaluated. Daily observation was
done in the set-ups. The treatment that stops in production of biogas was terminated. The
tables below show the length of time in production of biogas.
Table 7. Rate of Digestion of Onion Bulb-Based Biogas

Treatment
T1
T2
T3
Control

1
24.43
30.64
12.27
19.38

Replicate
2
30.61
28.25
12.49
20.15

Mean
3
23.20
30.98
13.95
19.46

26.08a
29.96a
12.90b
19.66c

*Any means having the same letter are not significantly different at 5% level

Table 8. Rate of Digestion of Onion Leaves-Based Biogas

Treatment
T1
T2
T3
Control

1
16.99
18.13
15.11
11.42

Replicate
2
19.96
19.70
13.19
12.64

Mean
3
20.10
15.00
12.23
9.29

19.02a
17.61a
13.51b
11.12b

*Any means having the same letter are not significantly different at 5% level

As shown in Table 7 and Table 8, Control (Table 8) had the fastest rate of biogas
production and T2 (Table 7) had the slowest. The rate of biogas production of T 3 (Table 7)
was 11.12 while T2 (Table 7) was 29.96. As state in the previous results, T2 (Table 5) gave
the highest biogas yield but it gave the slowest rate of biogas production. This implies .
Also that the final pH of T3 (Table 3) and T3 (Table 4) was decline to 5.0 thats why two

26

of them got the short period of time. Hence, Bullb-T3 must consider being the fastest in
producing biogas because bulb was easy to decompose than leaves. Furthermore, BulbT3 has a ratio of 70/30 (720mL water, 56g culled onion bulb and 24g pig manure). This
implies that the higher mass of culled onion bulb, the faster its production of biogas.
According to Saravanan and Manikandan (2012) production of biogas was faster when it
has large amount of organic waste and mixed with manure.

27

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Based on the findings, results showed that the highest biogas produced was
obtained from Bulb - T2 with a total amount of 834.84 ml for culled onion bulb and it was
comparable to Bulb T3 with 361.83 mL. Results also showed that culled onion bulb and
trimmed leaves with different pig manure ratio has significant effect on the production of
biogas. The results also showed that Leaves-Control is the fastest among other treatments
in producing biogas.
It is therefore conclude that onion waste and pig manure had high potential for
utilization of biodegradable source for biogas production. Furthermore, the more the ratio
of culled onion bulb mixed with pig manure, the more biogas was produced. The pH
value in methane production must be in range of 7.0-8.0 at ambient temperature.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It is suggested that reinvestigation be done for improvement of this study taking

into concern the following recommendations:
2. Used of other agricultural waste such as corn stoves, rice straw, and rice hull
for biogas production.
28

3. Used of other animal manure such as buffalo, horse and cattle manure for
biogas production.
4. Determined the physico-chemical properties for further enrichment of the
5.

study.
Further studies be conducted on the biogas production using indigenous
materials.

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