ABSTRACT Around the world, there is a growing need for an alternative source of energy to fossil fuels.

It is certain that after some decades, fossil fuels will no longer be available to the mankind and so untapped reliable source of energy available to us needs to be explored. This report gives an estimate of the potential of organic food waste as a source of energy to mankind and describes the technology that can be adopted to obtain energy from food waste. The increase in human population as well the consumption pattern of available resources has led to many unwanted consequences of which food waste generation in tremendous amount and price rise of fossil fuels are important ones that needs a lot of concern. The disposal of food waste in densely populated urban areas is a challenge and the usual method of transporting waste to landfills as a disposal method is becoming unreliable. The unreliability of this usual method is due to running out of space of landfills and the increasing cost in transportation of waste due to rising fuel price. Anaerobic digestion of organic food waste is the technology which can be adopted to convert food waste to bio gas energy through a series of complex chemical processes. This process involves the degradation of waste in absence of air by microorganism resulting to the production of bio-gas which can be used to produce heat and then to electrical energy. This technology can solve the problem of landfills running out of space and also cuts down human reliability on fossil fuels. The report focuses on the fundamentals of anaerobic digestion technology and utilization routes for energy generation. Some case studies from other parts of the world are also being presented. Potential and current status of AD in India is also mentioned in the report. Major limitations of the process are also given.