About usContact

BMP testingMunicipal and green waste, paper and textiles

Magazine paper — BMP: 6 studies, weighted mean 243 m³ CH₄/t VS

Coloured magazine paper is coated with kaolin or calcium carbonate, has less lignin than newsprint and digests better, but with a high ash share.

rating: goodCH₄ ≈ 51 % (estimate)

Published Updated 3 min readFeedstockData Editorial Team

Photo Alextredz / Wikimedia Commons, licence CC BY-SA 4.0, source file; changes: cropping

Weighted mean
243m³ CH₄/t VS
Range
195–316m³ CH₄/t VS
Records
6studies
Publications
3sources
Temperatures
35 °C, 55 °Cof the test

Methane in biogas

Low methane content · ≈ 5.1 kWh/m³ of biogas

estimate from the substrate type The collected studies contain no measurement. The interval follows from the approximate composition (protein from total nitrogen (N 0.1 % DM × 6.25)) and the yields of compound groups according to FNR.

How we calculate it and what the zones mean

Rating for biogas plants

good — editorial rating for biogas plantsStable, usually accepted without a fee

Potential per tonne of fresh matter: very high (169 m³ CH₄/t); no particular threats to stability. Handling costs: fibres, floating layer, slow degradation.

Why? Rating factors

Potential per tonne +3

  • +3potential 169 m³ CH₄/t fresh matter (BMP 243 × DM 94.7 % × VS 73.5 %)

Process stability 0

  • 0no factors

Handling and costs −1

  • −0.5fibres, floating layer — shredding and intensive mixing
  • −0.5slow degradation — long retention time

Total points: 2 · thresholds: ≥ 2.5 very good, ≥ 1 good, below — neutral; negative with cumulative process risk.

Editorial rating per the methodology · confidence of the rating: medium · excluding market prices

Add to the co-digestion calculator CSV data

BMP curves from 6 studies

Weighted mean Individual records

BMP curves: Magazine paperCumulative methane production over time for 6 records and the weighted mean of 243 m³ CH₄/t VS. 6 of the curves are model curves (first-order kinetics).01002003004000510152025303540time [d]m³ CH₄/t VSLi et al. (2020): 316 m³ CH₄/t VS (model curve)Nallathambi Gunaseelan (1997): 203 m³ CH₄/t VS (model curve)Krause et al. (2018) · 1: 195 m³ CH₄/t VS (model curve)Krause et al. (2018) · 2: 205 m³ CH₄/t VS (model curve)Krause et al. (2018) · 3: 207 m³ CH₄/t VS (model curve)Krause et al. (2018) · 4: 230 m³ CH₄/t VS (model curve)mean243

Dashed lines are a model curve (first-order kinetics, B(t) = B₀·(1 − e−kt)); the end point comes from the publication. All curves are model curves.

Cumulative methane production over the test [m³ CH₄/t VS]. The thick line is the weighted mean of all records (243); dots mark the end values given in the publications. Point at the chart to read values; click a legend item to hide or show a record.

Records and sources

Download CSV
SourceBMP
m³ CH₄/t VS		TemperatureSampleCurve
Li et al. (2020) DOI316—Magazine paper ()end point (model curve)
Nallathambi Gunaseelan (1997) DOI20335 °C · mesophilic(orig.: “magazine”): value quoted in a literature reviewend point (model curve)
Krause et al. (2018) · 1 DOI19535 °C · mesophilicmagazineend point (model curve)
Krause et al. (2018) · 2 DOI20535 °C · mesophilicmagazineend point (model curve)
Krause et al. (2018) · 3 DOI20755 °C · thermophilicmagazineend point (model curve)
Krause et al. (2018) · 4 DOI23055 °C · thermophilicmagazineend point (model curve)
Weighted mean243arithmetic mean 226, SD 46

Typical composition

Dry matter (DM)
94.7% (range 94.7–94.7)
Volatile solids (VS)
73.5 % DM (range 63.8–78.1)
Nitrogen
0.1 % DM
C/N ratio
337

Median and range of the determinations reported in the publications behind this substrate's BMP records (read from: BCBPD, MY-D); dry matter: 1 determination, volatile solids: 3 determinations. C/N was calculated as the ratio of C and N content (% DM) from the same source. Samples were tested dried/air-dry – the DM refers to the material in the test, not to fresh material.

Sources: Li et al. (2020); Nallathambi Gunaseelan (1997); Krause et al. (2018).

The composition of the raw material varies between batches — for plant calculations use an analysis of your own sample. The calculator inserts typical values automatically.

Process properties

  • fibrous
  • carbon-rich
  • low in nitrogen
  • slowly degrading
  • poor in trace elements
  • editorial classification

Low confidence: the description is based on general characteristics of the substrate group, not on studies of this material. Treat it as a hint to be verified.

Advantages

  • Methane potential in the Substraty.pl BMP dataset: weighted mean 242.9 m³ CH₄/t VS (SD 45.8; 6 records, 3 sources).
  • Coloured magazine paper: a source of cellulose, no risk of ammonia or acidification (Hendriks and Zeeman 2009).

Drawbacks and risks

  • Mineral coatings (kaolin, CaCO3) settle in the tank.

Co-digestion — what to combine it with, what to watch out for

Dosing

No source threshold.

Introduce gradually, starting with a small dose and monitoring the process (e.g. FOS/TAC, pH, gas composition).

Practical requirements

  • Shred: shredding increases the surface available for degradation and speeds it up, but does not necessarily raise the final gas yield (FNR 2010, Ch. 3 “Triturado”).

Sources of the process data

  1. Hagos et al. (2017). Anaerobic co-digestion process for biogas production: progress, challenges and perspectives. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.
  2. Weiland (2010). Biogas production: current state and perspectives. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol.
  3. Hendriks, Zeeman (2009). Pretreatments to enhance the digestibility of lignocellulosic biomass. Bioresour. Technol.
  4. FNR (2010). Guía sobre el Biogás – Desde la producción hasta el uso (hiszp. wydanie „Leitfaden Biogas”, GIZ 2013)

The co-digestion calculator will assess a specific mixture containing this substrate.

What it is and where it comes from

Coloured paper (magazines, catalogues, leaflets) is usually coated paper, made from a mixture of chemical and mechanical pulps with a coating of kaolin or calcium carbonate and binders. It arises as waste paper from households and the printing industry. It is recycled, and goes to digestion rather as a component of mixed waste. The dataset contains magazine samples tested at mesophilic and thermophilic temperatures.

Properties relevant to digestion

The basis is cellulose with an admixture of hemicelluloses and lignin, but a considerable part of the mass may be fillers and mineral coating, which contribute no methane and end up in the digestate. Coated paper degrades better than newsprint because it contains more chemical fibres, but clays and calcium carbonate cause sedimentation in the chamber. Coloured printing inks and varnishes are present in small amounts. The material is poor in nitrogen and phosphorus, so nutrients are needed in mono-digestion.

How to read the spread of results

The spread results from the differing ash and lignin content of individual magazines, the share of mechanical fibres, the way of converting to VS and the degree of size reduction. The test conditions also have an effect: temperature, inoculum, length and nutrient additions. One of the values was cited in a literature review, without a full description, and for one record the temperature is not given. With a few records the range cannot be considered representative of all types of magazines.

In biogas plant practice

Magazines are not a planned substrate; they enter the plant as an admixture in waste or are sent for recycling. Digestion requires size reduction, addition of nutrients and the ability to remove mineral sediments. Coloured paper is waste (group 15 or 20), and its acceptance requires a plant permit. If there are doubts about the heavy metal content of the inks, it is worth checking the quality of the digestate.

Compared with office paper, magazines contain more fillers and coatings, and compared with newsprint less lignin. As a result they occupy an intermediate position, but one highly dependent on the specific title and batch of waste paper, which further complicates drawing unambiguous conclusions.

It is worth taking this into account when planning.

Methodology in brief

BMP is the amount of methane obtained from volatile solids (VS) in a batch test, given in m³ CH₄ per tonne of VS (numerically the same as NmL CH₄/g VS in the publications) and converted to normal conditions (0 °C, 101.325 kPa). The weighted mean gives each publication a total weight of 1, split equally between its results for the substrate — a paper testing twenty varieties does not outweigh a paper with a single sample. In inter-laboratory programmes the unit is the laboratory (total weight 1), and within it the weight of a test grows with the number of bottles (replicates). Results after pretreatment (e.g. thermal, chemical, enzymatic) are shown separately and are not included in the mean.

Solid lines are curves measured in the tests. Where a publication gives only the final result, we draw a first-order kinetic model, B(t) = B₀·(1 − e−kt): only the end point comes from the publication, and the shape of the curve serves purely as visualisation — do not read the production on a particular day from it. For this substrate k = 0.110 d−1 was assumed (median of rate constants k reported in the sources and/or fitted to the mean measured curves).

The statistics describe the spread of published results — a descriptive compilation, not a meta-analysis or a guarantee of plant yield.

Full methodology and correction policy

Bibliography

  1. Li, W.; Khalid, H.; Amin, F.R.; Zhang, H.; Dai, Z.; Chen, C.; Liu, G. (2020). Biomethane production characteristics, kinetic analysis, and energy potential of different paper wastes in anaerobic digestion. Renewable Energy 157, 1081–1088. DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.04.035 DOI
  2. Nallathambi Gunaseelan, V. (1997). Anaerobic digestion of biomass for methane production: A review. Biomass and Bioenergy 13(1-2), 83–114. DOI: 10.1016/s0961-9534(97)00020-2 DOI
  3. Krause, M.J.; Chickering, G.W.; Townsend, T.G.; Pullammanappallil, P. (2018). Effects of temperature and particle size on the biochemical methane potential of municipal solid waste components. Waste Management 71, 25–30. DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2017.11.015 DOI

All sources of the site: bibliography.

Other substrates in the group “Municipal and green waste, paper and textiles”