BIOGAS PRODUCTION FROM WASTE TEXTILE COTTON USING COW DUNG, CASSAVA PEEL AND PALM SHAFT WASTE AS CO-SUBSTRATES

Abstract

The increasing generation of textile and agricultural wastes poses significant environmental challenges, particularly in developing countries. This study investigates the potential of biogas production from the co-digestion of cotton textile waste with cassava peel and palm shaft waste as sustainable co-substrates. The cotton waste was pretreated using 0.5 M sodium carbonate at 85 ± 2°C for 5 hours to enhance its biodegradability before anaerobic digestion under mesophilic conditions. Physicochemical properties of the substrates, including cellulose content, total solids, and carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio, were determined to evaluate their suitability for digestion. Batch anaerobic digestion was carried out under mesophilic conditions for 7 days, and produced gas was analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The results showed that co-digestion with palm shaft waste produced the highest cumulative biogas yield (1.63 L) at 70:30 cotton-to-palm shaft ratio, while the highest methane concentration (34.15%) was recorded  at the 50:50 ratio. The average methane concentration across the cotton-palm shaft formulations was 30.58%. The improved performance was attributed to favourable substrate synergy and balanced nutrient composition. Although the maximum methane (30.58%) was lower than 50-70% typically reported for well-optimized anaerobic co-digestion systems, this was likely due to the short 7-day digestion period. Nevertheless, the findings demonstrate the feasibility of converting waste textile cotton into renewable energy through anaerobic co-digestion. The study highlights the potential of integrating textile and agricultural wastes for sustainable energy generation while emphasizing the need to optimize retention time and other operating conditions to enhance methane yield.