Impurities in pretreated biowaste for co-digestion: A determination approach

• New approach for the determination of impurities in pretreated organic waste.
• Impurities from 0.06 mm to >2 mm are determined.
• Determination of impurities in fibrous and wet organic waste.
• Statistical verification of the approach.

Although the mechanical treatment of source separated organic waste typically includes processing steps to remove impurities like plastic bags, smaller particles like glass, stones or sand are often not sufficiently removed. These particles lead to plant malfunctions, increased equipment abrasion and accumulation in the digester. It is possible to remove these small impurities before or during the fermentation process but this requires additional equipment at the waste treatment facilities. For pretreated biowaste with fairly low concentrations of impurities and small particle sizes no appropriate method was found in literature to determine these particles. Therefore various approaches to develop an appropriate method were tested and finally one method was selected. Sample mass calculation showed that for the determination of impurities >2 mm a sample mass of about 6 kg is required to receive statistically sound result. Firstly an elutriation step is used to concentrate the impurities in a sinking fraction, still containing some organic material. The elutriated material is then dried. After drying the elutriated material, impurities can be fairly easily sorted manually. The elutriation process is applicable for the determination of impurities >1 mm. Due to the difficult manual sorting of particles <2 mm and the reduced sample mass required for the determination of particles <2 mm, these particles are determined by a different procedure: A sample mass of about 1 kg is dried and combusted in a muffle furnace. The remaining ashes are sieved from 2 to 0.06 mm. Particles <0.06 mm were not considered as impurities. The data regarding the impurities content and particle size distribution in food- and biowaste are required for assessing separation options as well as the behavior of stones or sand in the digester. This allows describing the quality of the pretreated biowaste. Furthermore the need to adopt or improve the existing pretreatment can be identified and the impact to the fermentation process (impurities accumulated in the digester, etc.) can be evaluated.