Open Access

ARTICLE

Biodegradation of Medicinal Plants Waste in an Anaerobic Digestion Reactor for Biogas Production

Kabir Fardad¹, Bahman Najafi¹, Sina Faizollahzadeh Ardabili¹, Amir Mosavi^2,3, Shahaboddin Shamshirband,^4,5,*, Timon Rabczuk²

1 Department of Biosystem Engineering, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, 56199-11367 Ardabil, Iran.
2 Institute of Structural Mechanics, Bauhaus University Weimar, 99423 Weimar, Germany.
3 Institute of Automation, Kando Kalman Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Obudai University, 1431 Budapest, Hungary.
4 Department for Management of Science and Technology Development, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
5 Faculty of Information Technology, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam .

* Corresponding Author: Shahaboddin Shamshirband. Email: .

Computers, Materials & Continua 2018, 55(3), 381-392. https://doi.org/ 10.3970/cmc.2018.01803

Abstract

Glycyrrhiza glabra, Mint, Cuminum cyminum, Lavender and Arctium medicinal are considered as edible plants with therapeutic properties and as medicinal plants in Iran. After extraction process of medicinal plants, residual wastes are not suitable for animal feed and are considered as waste and as an environmental threat. At present there is no proper management of waste of these plants and they are burned or buried. The present study discusses the possibility of biogas production from Glycyrrhiza Glabra Waste (GGW), Mentha Waste (MW), Cuminum Cyminum Waste (CCW), Lavender Waste (LW) and Arctium Waste (AW). 250 g of these plants with TS of 10% were digested in the batch type reactors at the temperature of 35°C. The highest biogas production rate were observed to be 13611 mL and 13471 mL for CCW and GGW (10% TS), respectively. While the maximum methane was related to GGW with a value of 9041 mL (10% TS). The highest specific biogas and methane production were related to CCW with value of 247.4 mL.(g.VS)-1 and 65.1 mL.(g.VS)-1, respectively. As an important result, it was obvious that in lignocellulose materials, it cannot be concluded that the materials with similar ratio of C/N has the similar digestion and biogas production ability.

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Keywords

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