Energy potential of vegetable wastes

The need for energy resources in the world has been increasing steadily. In the developing countries, the demand for energy will be even more intense in future in line with increasing population, industrialization, rise in people's living standards and technological developments. The search for new and renewable energy sources in the world and in our country has significantly increased in recent years to meet this increasing energy need. Especially, the use of organic waste as an energy source has been gaining importance. In this study, the potential energy of vegetable waste in Turkey was calculated based on vegetable production data obtained from Turkey Statistical Institute (TSI). Approximately 30.40% of Turkey's territorial size (233850926.50 decares) constitute agricultural land. In 66.44% of the farmlands, cereals and other crops are planted. 15.81% of the areas are fallow area, 3.40% of the area are vegetable gardens, 14.30% are used for fruits, beverage and spice plants (herbs) and 0.02% are used for ornamental plants. According to TSI, cultivation areas in Turkey in 2017 are 24396791 decares for barley, 7796217 decares for sunflower, 76990818 decares for wheat, 11253140 decares for corn and 5018534 decares for cotton. Potencially the total amount of biogas that be produced from plants in Turkey is of 240673168 m3/year. Therefore the energy equivalent of the biogas which can be produced from vegetable wastes can be calculated as 5463.19 TJ/year (130460.98 TEP/year).