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Quantification of the potential for biogas and biogas manure from the selected
fruit wastes in Addis Ababa city, Ethiopia

Article · December 2013

DOI: 10.5897/AJEST2013.1568

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 Vol. 7(12), pp. 1037-1043, December 2013
DOI: 10.5897/AJEST2013.1568 African Journal of Environmental Science and
ISSN 1996-0786 © 2013 Academic Journals
http://www.academicjournals.org/AJEST
Technology

Full Length Research Paper

Quantification of the potential for biogas and biogas

manure from the selected fruit wastes in
Addis Ababa city, Ethiopia
Getachew Dagnew Gebreeyessus1* and Berhanu Assefa Demissie2
1
Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Haramaya University, P.O. Box 235, Harar, Ethiopia.
2
School of Chemical and Bio-Engineering, Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, Addis Ababa University,
P.O. Box 385, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Accepted 4 September, 2013

In this paper, the overall potential of biogas and biogas manure from the selected fruit wastes in the city
of Addis Ababa was estimated (quantified). The prediction is based on the characterization and biogas
yield results in a related study, using structured questionnaire and checklists during field survey. This
study has shown a survey of the major sources of the fruit wastes and compiled the number of
registered service providers in this particular sector by category. Consequently, this study has shown
that the wasted biogas potential of the city from the selected 164.51 tons of daily fruit wastes alone was
20896 m3 per day. This wasted energy material is equivalent to 9000 L of diesel fuel that currently would
cost 9389 US dollars. Further, soil nutrients that could be obtained from use of anaerobic digestion of
the selected fruit wastes are 366 kg/day of total phosphorus, 798 kg/day of total nitrogen and 565 kg/day
of potassium, which are also lost in vain. Therefore, the study shows the importance of proper organic
waste management for the recovery of clean energy and nutrients, while at the same time avoiding
expenses to buy fossil fuel as source of energy and reduce the associated stress on our environment
and more.

Key words: Biogas potential, fruit waste, quantification, prediction, biogas manure.

INTRODUCTION

The so-called wastes that we discard and suffer with the development mainly due to awareness and capability of
consequences of improper management are of course the public (Kumar, 2005; Belloso and Fortuny, 2011)
partly huge energy and fertilizer sources that can support Addis Ababa city inhabiting closer to four million people
energy demands of cities greatly. Urban waste disposal is generates solid waste at a rate of 0.4 kg/head/day and
a serious challenge in all cities in the developing world, 60% of the municipal solid waste is organic in nature
and its accumulation is an additional health hazard (Tesema, 2010). The existing solid waste collection
(Young, 2012). system of the city is inadequate and covers only 60% of
Food waste problem is not only in this part of the world, the waste generated. This is due to lack of transportation
India or Africa. It is a problem in the whole world. In big facilities and financial matters as well as geographic
and medium cities, the problem intensifies due to socio- inconvenience for collection signifying the unreliability of
economic factors. For example, consumption of fruits and the system for waste items like easily decaying fruit and
vegetables along with the resulting waste increase with vegetable wastes (FVW) (Regassa et al., 2011).

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].

1038 Afr. J. Environ. Sci. Technol.

In relation to this, Ethiopia’s horticulture has become one require oxygen supply, as well as, its feasibility of being
of big cash crop production. The production of fruit and even commercialized.
vegetable (FVs), including root crops, was 2.16 million Though converting these wastes to a renewable
tones. The total FV production in 2008/2009 for the energy/biogas and soil manure is proved to be
season comprises about 351 thousand tones of fruits magnificent, little is known on the quantity of the biogas
(16%), 600 thousand tons of vegetables (28%), and 1.2 potential of such wastes in the city. Therefore, this study
million tons of root crops (56%) (Ethiopian Horticultural is aimed at estimating the quantity of biogas and pre-
Development Agency, 2011). diction of biogas manure that can be recovered from FW
Tesema (2010) estimated that the city of Addis Ababa generated by Addis Ababa city. Thus, this finding could
generates 23.1 tones of FVWs daily, in a study help many stakeholders interested in an Integrated Solid
conducted earlier and it looks very much under estimated Waste Management (ISWM) activity that is geared
as it is done on household basis. Therefore, it could be towards city sustainability in terms of energy and
simply additional to what ‘point sources’ discharge as the environmental management.
same waste. Moreover, these figures could increase with
the growth of the horticulture industry year after year.
The sources for FVWs are diverse (Peavy et al., 1985; METHODS AND MATERIALS
AbdAlqader and Hamad, 2012). FVWs in the city
emanate from general store, open markets, FV markets, Description of the study area
transporters, supermarkets, fruit juice houses, ‘mobile’
Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, which is by far the largest in
fruit sellers and consumer households. These wastes the country, is located almost at the geographical centre of the
unnecessarily join municipal waste stream mostly in national territory. The city covers an area size of 530.21 square
waste containers that are picked up using hauling and kilometres and a population of 3,059,000 million persons (CSA,
are transported to a local open dumpsite. 2006). Addis Ababa has a history of a little more than 100 years. In
An important step towards a sustainable waste manage- this short span of time, the city grew from a small traditional
ment system is to augment the waste reduction, reuse Ethiopian town to one of Africa's metropolises.
Astronomically, Addis Ababa is located at 09° 02' N latitude and
and recycle paradigm with processes that actually reduce 38° 44' E longitude. It is LOCATEDon the steep escarpment of Mt.
solid waste accumulation (Pinderhughes, 2004). One of Entoto in the North (2900 m) to the South with an average altitude
the compelling processes in this category is anaerobic of 2400 m. The central FVM is located in Arada sub city near the
digestion where little is done in this regard (Mshandete municipality and on the way from Piassa to Mercato, the largest
and Parawira, 2009). When fruit wastes (FWs) are commercial area (Figure 1).
collected at the outset, the operation would be easy to
deal with.
Sampling
FVWs are known to contain highly biodegradable
compounds (70 - >80% volatile solid) and moisture stron- The study area covered the entire city where there are fruit retails,
gly supporting their use for anaerobic biogas digesters’ ‘mobile’ fruit sellers, fruit wholesales, juice houses, super markets
input. These wastes therefore holdup signifi-cant energy including the major FV distribution centre, which is located at the
(Hawkins and Rains, 2008) and manure resource. heart of the city, where this study was focused. This study excluded
However, these resources are wasted and left to FWs from households. The commercial facilities related to FWs are
sampled randomly in the city. Up-to-date information was obtained
decompose where a related problem arises in other
on the number of registered FV related business firms from Trade
areas (Gustavsson et al., 2011). Due to the decompo- and Investment Bureau of the City Administration.
sition, the wastes emit huge amount of CH4 and CO2 Moisture resistant and baskets with cover were used to collect
(green house gasses) to the atmosphere together with the selected FWs that were weighed daily to determine the average
NH3 and H2S-noxious gases, causing environmental and wastage in those sampling points for about two weeks as indicated
health problems. Moreover, the wastes affect aquatic in Figure 1.
systems by depleting dissolved oxygen due to the bio-
chemical strength of the wastes if washed with
Data collection and analysis
floodwater.
The reason for considering environment and methane
The quantification (estimation) was made based on supplementary
gas in the management of such wastes can be explained data collected using structured questionnaire administered in a
(Esposito et al., 2012) considering mainly three factors. face-to-face interview and fieldwork made using observation
First, is the need to apply a process to dispose organic checklists following letter communications with all respondents and
solid wastes in a more environmentally friendly manner daily weighted selected FWs.
along with useful soil conditions. Official letter communication was also made to the relevant
government agency to obtain data on the number of the service
Secondly, the opportunity to obtain from this process a
providers. The TS and biogas yield calculators were obtained from
renewable fuel called biogas alternative to fossil fuel. a previous study by the same authors. The result was analyzed
Thirdly, the advantage of relatively low costs in starting using Excel 2007 and discussed with related findings, journals and
up and managing this process as it mainly does not relevant literatures.
 Gebreeyessus and Demissie 1039

Figure 1. Map of the study area (GIS-2011).

Table 1. The summary of the number of fruit and vegetable juice, supermarkets and the subtotal in sub city in Addis Ababa city
(data are up to the year 2010).

Sub city
Business field
Addis ketema Akaki Arada Bole Gulele Kirkos Kolfe Lideta Yeka and N/silk
FV juice 14 6 16 13 15 9 15 24 2
Supermarkets 157 19 54 114 23 121 94 37 87
Sub-total 171 25 60 117 28 130 109 41 89
Source: Extracted from Addis Ababa Trade and Industry Bureau (2010).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION General

Basics Sources of such FWs are diverse. In this regard, is not

only the formal sector that is running the FV business but
A related laboratory scale study on the potential of the also the informal people are involved. The Ethiopian
selected FWs in the city was made for biogas and government’s agency in control of registering this group
relevant results were brought (Gebreeyessus and is also operating behind the existing distribution of the
Demissie, 2013), which triggered this further study. In sector.
fact, the magnitude of the resource wasted has to be The distribution of the fruit juice houses in the city is
quantified in order to show the relevance of related uneven (Table 1) ranging between 2 and 24 in number
interventions to recover such resources. among sub cities. The huge quantity is generated by
1040 Afr. J. Environ. Sci. Technol.

Figure 2. Distribution of supermarkets and fruit and vegetable juice houses in Addis Ababa
City, 2010.

“Atikilt tera” which is followed by fruit juice houses, based rotten fruits and improper temperature application for
on personal observation. heating fruits to ripen the row. There divisions of private
Addis ketema sub city is the highest to have those and shared FV companies in this zone are made based
super markets and FV juice houses followed by kirkos on types of FV commodities; mainly banana, mango and
sub city. The least is Akaki sub city, as it is located at the avocado, vegetables and root crops.
out skirt of the city (Table 1 and Figure 2) (Trade and The tomato-dominated corner disposes nearly 1500 kg
Industry Bureau of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, letter of waste daily. Regarding banana waste, there are 12
communication, 2012). compounds in the two areas; one “Atikilt tera” and the
In a related fact, the operation and waste generation is other to the north in front of “Atikilt tera” commonly called
also variable temporally. The reasons for fluctuation of “Talian sefer”. The hugest amount of FWs contributed is
FVW generation are mainly the seasonality of supply of banana, including its holding stem and little rolling leaf 8
fruits in the market and the consumers factor which m3 of FW is discharged every day from each store
shows peak consumption in fasting days than others as totalling 12 containers of the waste.
well as location of the houses. In general, auditing of Within “Atikilt tera”, the mango FW discharge is also
input versus wasted (locally called “marsh”) is almost comparable to banana, however mango is more
uncontrolled by the private business makers except the seasonally available as it is supplied for about only 8
state owned one (Etfruit). months in a year to market. It is estimated that 4 to 7
3
number of an 8 m container mango wastes are
discarded daily from “Atikilt tera”.
Quantification of overall FVWs from major The avocado FW is more contributed by juice houses
contributors and retailers than in “Atikilt tera”. In fact, over four 8 m3
volume waste containers are emptied to dumpsite daily,
Rough estimation of the total FWs was made based on and more during the supply season.
the number of firms involved in this trade field (registered According to the Ethiopian FV Market Share Company
and informal). The responses of focal persons and the (Etfruit) there are over 60 fruit shops within Addis Ababa
approximate weight of the wastes in a given volume as city that are relatively evenly distributed. These fruit
well as approximate composition of the wastes were shops receive 60 kg of fruits daily on average. These
studied. However, it should be considered that supply shops unlike the private shops have to return almost 20
and discharge are variable within days of a week and kg of avocado, banana, and mango FWs daily on
seasons of the year as mentioned earlier. average back to storage centre due to defect for disposal
The grand share of FVWs in general and FWs in (Etfruit Ethiopia, personal communication, 2012).
particular is generated by the central FV market-“Atikilt In all other contributors (except “Atikilt tera” and mobile
tera” as marked earlier. The reasons for wastage in fruit sellers) the primary FWs discharged are avocado
particular to the site are partly due to physical damage, and mango followed by banana all accounting to 2/3 of
 Gebreeyessus and Demissie 1041

Table 2. Summary of generation rate (in tons/day) for the selected FWs by the
identified contributors.

Contributor sector
Fruit waste
Atikilt tera Etfruit FV Juice supermarket Mobile
Avocado 43 0.3 30. 0.8 -
Banana 110 0.4 8 0.1 1
Mango 62 0.2 18 0.6 -

Table 3. Mean value of TS (g/l), VS (g/l) removal, and biogas productivity and average
methane for the various conditions evaluated in batch experiment of 35 days of
anaerobic digestion time.

System TS VS TS VS VS (%) Biogas Average CH4

(digester) Initial Initial Final final removal (m 3/kg VS) (%)
A0 7.7 6.2 4.1 3.157 49 0.48 55.56
B0 7.6 6.06 3.8 2.998 50.5 0.57 58.16
M0 7.8 5.96 3.6 2.495 58.1 0.53 51.64
A1 7.9 6.36 3.1 2.3 63.8 0.76 54.68
B1 7.8 6.22 3.2 2.32 62.7 0.82 56.38
M1 7.9 6.05 3.2 2.22 63.3 0.82 52.14
Source: Gebreeyessus and Demissie, 2013. TS, Total solids; VS, volatile solids.

Table 4. Summary of important information and prediction values for biogas (methane) per day.

Total TS average VS average VS total Average Total biogas Average CH4 Total CH4
FWs (kg) (%) (%) (kg) biogas(m 3/kg VS) (m 3) (m 3/kg VS) (m 3/kg VS)
164510 20.2 78.6 26120 0.8 20896 0.44 11493
Source: Gebreeyessus and Demissie, 2013.

total. Roughly, over 144 fruit, vegetable and juice houses decision makers and further studies from applying such
discard 0.3 m3 FVWs daily dominated by mango and recovery technologies in efficient manner in the following
avocado (2/3) in the city. sections.
Giving observatory check to those informal mobile
sellers that range from 100-200 in number in the city,
about 5 - 11 kg of banana waste is discarded daily by Estimation of possible biogas from these selected
each seller. In addition to that, the low rate of discard is FWs
by the supermarkets, 706 in number, as most of them do
have better facilities for storage, 3 kg of FWs per day According to a recent bench scale experimental study,
each. the biogas as well as methane yield obtainable from
The amount of selected FWs reported in unit of volume these FWs was found to be promising (Table 3).
can be expressed in unit of weight using the average Based on these data, rough estimate of the possible
respective densities of the selected FWs for subsequent clean energy obtainable from the selected FWs in the city
calculations. The weight per day and the contributors for is calculated below. The necessary information to predict
the selected FWs is summarized in Table 2. was the amount of such waste discarded daily, those
The total quantity of these selected FWs when added FWs characterization results (moisture, TS and VS), and
amounts to 164.51 tons/day. Even this amount is total biogas as well as methane yield from the preceding
exclusive of the same discharge from households. Thus, experimental work (Table 4).
this huge resource should not be lost. Therefore, the The TS and VS values are average values for the
objective of this paper was to predict possible reco- selected FWs combined and are calculated the same
verable biogas out of these resources thereby supporting way as shown in Table 3. The biogas volume estimated
1042 Afr. J. Environ. Sci. Technol.

Table 5. Summary of the total determinant nutrients quantification different FWs, the average biogas manure could contain
on daily basis. 366 kg/day of total phosphorus, 798 kg/day of total
nitrogen and 565 kg/day of potassium. Had such
Nutrient Average gm/kg TS Total amount (kg) nutrients been synthesized artificially, the cost and
Total phosphorus 11 366 environmental implication would have been huge. In
Total nitrogen 24 798 Cuba for instance, use of chemical fertilizers is prohibited
Potassium 17 565 in cities rather, the use of organic composting using a
peri-urban horticulture imitative is encouraged (Young,
2012).
recoverable by proper management of these wastes in Undoubtedly, this amount is obtainable excluding other
3 components of FVWs. The content of nutrient by the
the city is about 20896 m /day. This, with average
methane content of 54.4% is estimated to give a total of other vegetable wastes would probably be higher in this
11496 m3/day CH4 (methane).In a related report, the fuel regard. Therefore, this prediction also adds to the need to
value of 0.24 m3 biogas with 40% CH4 content was recover such nutrients from the waste resources in
addition to the clean energy obtainable.
reported to be equivalent to 0.1 L of diesel fuel
(Department of Environment and Resource Management, In relation to this, if such waste is simply dumped on
soils, it will give little humus due to consumption of the
Australia, 2011). This implies the city of Addis Ababa is
organic matter by microorganisms for their growth
wasting an equivalent fuel value of 9000 L of diesel fuel,
(Memon et al., 2012). Contrary to this, the biogas manure
which is about 9389 US dollar in terms of money. In other
interrupts succession of plant parasites from year to year
terms of comparison, the same amount of daily biogas
yield could have be converted to 11.2 mega watt of in addition to the best nutritive value it gives which can be
considered also as an indirect benefit. Therefore, it is
electricity had it been managed using the anaerobic
imperative to pay attention to issue for action not only to
digesters.
Currently, interests in the use of biogas are increasing meet environmental demands but also for economic
by the sub-Saharan African cities due to its economic and advantage as well.
environmental benefits (Austin et al., 2011). The recovery
of such huge resource needs attention by the various Conclusion
concerned parties. Basic biogas technology therefore can
make a big difference (Environmental Health Perspect, Even though energy is a need in cities of developing
2006). countries, it is being disposed and unrecovered. Fruit and
The issue does not end with only the lost of such vegetable wastes are dumped in open field, discarded in
resource but also the inevitable accompanying environ- adjoining streams and in cities including Addis Ababa in
mental stress the wastes bring in; emission to atmos- some locations. These known source wastes however
phere and mainly water sources pollution. On the other hold huge energy potential. The quantity of fruit wastes
hand, our dependence on fossil fuel as energy source discarded in the city of Addis Ababa is so huge (~164.51
and the synthetic fertilizer production adds much green tons/day) that its indiscriminate disposal or open dumping
house gas emissions in addition to the costs to buy the poses serious public and environmental health problem.
items (Young, 2012). Nevertheless, using some technology these wastes can
Obviously, the collection and transportation to dump be converted to useful materials; energy and soil
site is not free as well. Based on the information from nutrients while at the same time avoiding the undesirable
“Atikilt tera” merchants, 4.5 US dollar was spent to consequences of open dumping. Conversely, use of
discard 1 m3 of the wastes. However, collection and fossil fuels as energy sources would result in economic
transportation of the wastes to gas centres will also not and environmental implications.
be free. The renewable energy that would have been recovered
is equivalent to 11.2 mega watt of electricity daily. The
benefit from proper management is even greater. The
The biogas manure prediction anaerobic digestion of such wastes can also result to
sustainability of soil nutrients, replacing significantly the
The advantage of applying biogas technology for
synthetic fertilizers.
management of such wastes is better than obtaining the
Thus, the various stakeholders in an integrated solid
clean and renewable energy. It can also provide
waste management should focus on to unhide such huge
opportunity for soil nutrient to recycle far better than
energy and nutrient potential in order to sustain cities;
applying the row waste to farm and more.
however, further studies have to be done in this regard.
Based on the daily TS wasted which are 33, 231 kg
and the amount of the soil fertility indicators determined
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