Influence of thermal pretreatment on physical and chemical properties of kitchen waste and the efficiency of anaerobic digestion

The effects of thermal pretreatment at moderate temperatures (70, 80 and 90 °C) and high temperatures (120, 140 and 160 °C) over heating durations of 10-120 min on the physical and chemical properties of kitchen waste and on anaerobic digestion were investigated. The results show that thermal pretreatment significantly enhances the solubilisation of organic compounds (chemical oxygen demand, crude proteins, crude fats and volatile fatty acids) and their biodegradability during subsequent anaerobic digestion. High temperature and long heating duration are beneficial for the release and reduction of organic compounds, and the efficiency of subsequent anaerobic digestion is improved markedly under these conditions. Moreover, both the methane production rate and methane yield were observed to increase significantly at moderate treatment temperatures when the anaerobic digestion time was longer than 50 h.