POTENTIAL OF ENERGY PRODUCTION FROM SLAUGHTERHOUSE WASTEWATER/POTENCIAL DE PRODUCCION DE BIOGAS A PARTIR DE AGUAS RESIDUALES DE RASTRO/POTENCIAL DE PRODUCAO DE BIOGAS A PARTIR DE AGUAS RESIDUAIS DE ABATEDOURO

This paper assesses the potential of slaughterhouse wastewater as raw material for biogas production in Mexico. First, wastewater from an abattoir is directly treated in lab scale anaerobic bioreactors; batch configuration with immobilized biomass was implemented in order to evaluate the biogas production. After that, an estimation of the energy generation from the produced biogas is carried out. From the experimental assays, ~90% of the chemical oxygen demand was removed and a production of 0.78[m.sup.3] of biogas per [m.sup.3] of treated water was obtained. Thus, if the whole of wastewater generated in Mexican slaughterhouses (8,026,596[m.sup.3]) was treated by anaerobic processes, more than 16,500MWh/year could be generated by considering a 75% of methane concentration in biogas, as obtained in this work. In consequence, the emission of around 8,400t C[O.sub.2eq]/ year could be avoided.