Proposta de um biodigestor para geração de energia a partir dos resíduos orgânicos do Restaurante Universitário – Campus A. C. Simões

Abstract

Aiming at reducing electricity costs at the Federal University of Alagoas, as well as improving its waste management, this work proposes an anaerobic reactor configuration for the treatment of organic waste from the University’s Restaurant and the transformation of the biogas generated in energy. Reducing the consumption of electricity from the national net, which originates predominantly in hydroelectric dams, tends to reduce the need to build huge reservoirs, which impact the entire aquatic ecosystem, as well as transmission lines that run large stretches. In addition, better management of organic waste prevents them from being disposed of inappropriately, causing damage to the environment, such as pollution, proliferation of pathogens and emission of greenhouse gases. For this purpose, it was carried out a survey of the amount of waste generated, in addition to the biodigestion technologies suitable for this type of residue. It was concluded that the most indicated model is the Continuous Flow Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR). As this type of reactor is widely used in chemical engineering, sizing methods from this area of knowledge have been used. For the estimation of conversion in electricity, the methane content and its conversion rate, found in the literature, were used. Analyzing the values of the university's electricity bill and the initial investment estimate, it is concluded that the proposal has an electricity generation potential of approximately 700kWh, which, in an initial analysis, enables its implementation.