Abstract
This paper evaluates the viability of anaerobic digestion technology as a treatment process for
organic waste with an intention of solving the landfill crisis as well as mitigation of greenhouse
gases. The proposed technology consists of two digesters system using soaking as a pre-treatment
method, and with recirculation of the process water and digested sludge. A financial model was
developed to evaluate the economic feasibility of this technology as a renewable energy. Instead
of the waste decomposing at local landfills, is converted into a source of energy while the byproducts
of the process are treated and used as fertilizers. This technology will require a capital
investment of R 2, 2773,900 with a capacity to treat 730000 kg of waste annually. The annual
production cost of R1, 269,138 was calculated. The proposed model has debt repayments of R
2,478,551. The total revenue from year 2 – 5 was R 2,360,800, R 2,930,158, R 3,457,314.6 and
R 3,988,407.6, respectively. These AD facilities can produce up to 110960 kWh per annum of
biogas fuel. The net present value of R3, 042,592, internal rate of return (IRR) of 33% and (BCR)
of 1.96 shows that the technology is economically feasible.