Biogas and biofertilizer production from organic fraction municipal solid waste for sustainable circular economy and environmental protection in Malaysia

Highlights: • The potential of resource recovery form organic waste for a circular economy and in Malaysia was investigated. • Anaerobic digestion of OFMSW can result in 3941 MWh/day of electrical and 2500 Mg/day of biofertilizer. • A total of 2735 Mg/day of CO₂ emission, 1128 m²/day of landfilling area and 481 m³/day of leachate can be avoided. • Economic development can go hand-in-hand with environmental sound practices in the field of waste management. Waste management in Malaysia remains a persistent economic and environmental challenge. Up to date, more than 80% of Malaysian solid waste disposed at landfills and dumpsites. Therefore, Malaysia is facing an urgent need to move towards a sustainable solid waste management and thus resource recovery from organic solid waste. Hence, this study aims to investigate the feasibility of energy and bio fertilizer recovery from organic fraction municipal solid waste (OFMSW) via anaerobic digestion. The economic and environmental benefit analysis was investigated. Approximate and elementary analysis of OFMSW samples were carried out to estimate the potential production of biogas and bio fertilizer. It was found that organic waste contributes about 45% of the total MSW generated in Malaysia. Anaerobic digestion of 50% of organic waste is expected to produce 3941 MWh/day of electrical energy and 2500 t/day of bio fertilizer. In terms of environmental impacts, 2735 t/day of Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emission, 1128 m²/day of landfilling area and 481 m³/day of leachate can be avoided. A net revenue of 3300 million RM (1 US Dollar ≈ 4.15 RM) can be generated by the sales of electricity via Feed-in-Tariff (FiT), sales of biofertilizer to local agricultural industries and inclusive of the saving generated from the reduction of OFMSW landfilling operations and leachate treatment at landfills. Economic development can go hand-in-hand with environmental sound practices in the field of waste management.