FISH WASTE: POTENTIAL REVENUE DUMPED INTO THE SEA
Every day except for Friday, the fish market in Male’, the capital of the Maldives, produces a significant amount of fish waste, around 8-12 tons (8000-12000 kg) per day. This organic waste is just dump into the ocean near the fish market area.
This highly organic fish waste has potential to generate considerable revenue and can be turned into a commercially viable business.
Fish waste from the fish market can be best utilised in the production of organic fertilizers and composts, which have immense benefits over imported unsterilized organic fertilizers and chemical-based products.
Fish waste is dumped into the sea near the fish market area.
The Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO)’s fish processing unit in Lhaviyani Felivaru produces fish meal from fish waste for exports as ingredient for cattle feeds.
Fish waste can also be used in producing biogas in a process called anaerobic digestion, and is a renewable source of energy rich in methane and carbon dioxide, appropriate for energy production and could help in replacing fossil fuels in the Maldives attempts to become carbon neutral by 2020.
Anaerobic digestion is the process whereby organic materials breakdown naturally by anaerobic bacteria in the absence of oxygen and produce biogas as waste products.
In addition, in the biogas anaerobic digestion process the nutrient-rich solids left after digestion can be used as fertilizer
An explanation of the Anaerobic Digestion Biogas Digester Process
which produces biogas
http://www.anaerobic-digestion.com/html/the_biogas_digester.php
