[Digestion] biogas from coffee grounds and used mushroom substrate

[Hoysall Chanakya]

Dear Mr Wayne,
We did get small quantities of gas from coffee grounds.  However, the fact
that you are collecting coffee grounds on a weekly basis, excludes a large
fraction that would go into making biogas - namely the simpler components.

Subsequently, removal of the simpler components from the material
especially by digesting it first in a biogas plant provides a great deal
of protection against infection /contamination by a variety of common
fungi.  They do not attack the feedstock as easily as they would have done
if the simple to break down components were not first removed from the
material used for mushroom cultivation.  Besides, coffee grounds singly
would not allow adequate aeration for growing mushrooms and would require
an inert or a material like rice straw that could provide sufficient voids
for air to pass.  If you have only coffee grounds as a coarse powder, you
will need a different technique (other than the hanging bag method) to
raise oyster mushrooms.

After mushroom cultivation, there would be very little left for conversion
by anaerobic digestion.  I would not have much hopes for this last option.

best wishes
Chanakya




-- 
This message has been scanned for viruses and
dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
believed to be clean.