FHNW – Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, considerable amounts of agro-industrial waste accumulate yearly; especially from banana fruit (peel, pulp) and other organic waste from the fruit industry, which are hardly ever recycled or used for energetic purposes to date. Studies indicate that the energetic use of biowaste from fruits is limited due to the tannins present in the peels, which inhibit the fermentation process. Extracting tannins prior to fermentation could significantly enhance the yield of biogas production.

Taking banana peels as an example, the project aims at developing semi-industrial methods to optimize the fermentation of agro-industrial waste through prior tannin extraction and demonstrating the technical application in a large-scale biogas plant. Under the production of biogas and the use of the digestate in farming, it shall be evaluated how the extracted tannin can be commercialized.