The wastewater produced from wet coffee processing (WCP), originated from the coffee fruits, can produce great quantities of biogas, which, in turn, can be also used as an alternative or complementary energy source. In this research, we studied the variation of methane concentration produced by WCP in a laboratory-scale UASB reactor with anaerobic treatment. The samples were collected during a period of 86 days. The methane concentration was measured through gas solid chromatography (GSC). The production of biogas and methane ranged from 0.545 to 0.602 m³ kg-1DQO removed and from 0.382 a 0.421 m³ kg-1 DQO removed, respectively. Methane presence in the biogas ranged from 48.60% to 68.14 %. This variation was influenced by the following parameters: temperature, pH, acidity, and phenol compounds present in the WCP. As expected, greater concentrations of methane gas were verified during the periods when the pH close to neutral.
Anaerobic treatment; UASB reactor; gas chromatography; methane
