Releasing Energy Potentials from Yard Waste, Seaweed and Stream Weed Cutting via Aikan technology

Aikan technology is a two-phase semi-dry anaerobic digestion and composting system designed for biodegradable municipal solid waste. Aikan has proven robust towards impurities and unwanted particles and improved the energy and mass balance for this waste.

In the present project Aikan demonstrates capability to produce biogas out of the fine fraction of yard waste together with seaweed and stream weed cuttings. These three feedstocks represent at least between 15-30 million m³ of pure methane in Denmark alone. The feedstocks are today composted or just disposed of on agricultural land with loss of CO₂, methane and N₂0 as a consequence. The feedstocks represent at least 300.000 ton of Volatile Solids in Denmark a potential that equals the total amount of biodegradable municipal solid waste.

The obstacles for conventional wet AD systems are that the content of sand becomes sediments in the reactor tanks and that twigs and other large materials clock the pumping systems. Aikan foresee that these obstacles can be overcome due to the two phase split and knowledge of practical physical handling. The project will show that the value chain can be improved significantly and that by pretreating and degasifying the feedstocks can become valuables instead of costs.