Enhancing Renewable Energy (biogas/bio-hydrogen) Production from Organic Wastes - Towards a more Sustainable and Climate-neutral Approach

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The increasing global energy demand and negative environmental effects of fossil on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change has led to the adoption of policies and strategies towards sustainable and renewable energy production. Thus, there is a need for research and development on all potential sustainable energy production pathways including energy production from biomass, either in search of new alternative sources of biomass or energy production routes. Bio-hydrogen and Bio-methane production are two promising alternatives, which have been included in the list prioritized energy production options in many countries including Canada. Organic waste could be used as the biomass feedstock, which offers a low-cost feedstock and a sustainable solid waste management approach to divert organic waste from landfilling. The long-term objective of the research is the "Production of Renewable Energy/Bioenergy in the context of Sustainable Development and Climate-Neutral Approach". There are three laboratory projects included. These are: Project 1, enhanced biogas production from poultry manure by a novel post-hydrolysis approach in a continuous two-stage anaerobic digestion process; Project 2, assessing the feasibility and optimization of bio-hydrogen/bio-methane production from organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW); and Project 3, enhancing bio-hydrogen production from poultry manure using co-fermentation with OFMSW. Research Impact: Production of clean and renewable energy from biomass is of particular and increasing interest. Under the current circumstance, worldwide ongoing research on hydrogen generation and storage is intensive. There has been significant development for bioenergy production from energy crops over the last decade; however, there is a conflict and competition between cultivation for energy crops and food crops. This research will help to assess the possibility of widening the range of the biomass sources to include PM and OFMSW as feedstock for bioenergy production by mitigating the technical and practical challenges through cost-effective stripping of ammonia, single- and two- stage fermentation process, combined dark/photo fermentation, combined dark-fermentation/methane production, and co-fermentation of OFMSW and PM. This would help to implement AD and fermentation processes in the meat production industry and agricultural wastes worldwide, opening a multi-billion-dollar market. The results will also help Canada to reach a climate-neutral state in the future by adopting production of sustainable and renewable energy. In addition to economic and environmental benefits to Canada, it will offer a management option to the agricultural sector. The results will have significant contribution to advance the knowledge in the field and provide opportunity to train a 3HQPs.