Arrowroot waste has been being discharged without treatment in powder/starch processing villages in Viet Nam causing serious environmental problem. This waste is degradable and might have good Biomethane Potential (BMP) which leads to a possibility to treat them by anaerobic digestion. Therefore, the study aimed to find out the BMP of the waste and to find out if alkaline pre-treatment would improve it. Solid waste from arrowroot powder processing was collected in Duong Lieu village, Ha Noi,

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... different samples were going through BMP test: the untreated sample and NaOH pre-treated samples at different NaOH dose from 3 to 9 wt. % (dry weight based). BMP was determined in 590 mL bottles at 37 oC for 50 days. As the results, BMP of the original arrowroot waste sample was 253 NmLCH4/gVS and alkaline pretreatment increased BMP of the waste 21.9 % at 7 % NaOH. The reduction of lignin content and hemicellulose content at this pretreatment were 7.2 % and 9.4 %, respectively. The results show that the waste has potential for methane recovery and alkaline pre-treatment by NaOH would slightly improve its biodegradability.