Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
7483368 | Journal of Environmental Management | 2014 | 8 Pages |
Abstract
Treatment of food waste by anaerobic digestion can lead to an energy production coupled to a reduction of the volume and greenhouse gas emissions from this waste type. According to EU Regulation EC1774/2002, food waste should be pasteurized/sterilized before or after anaerobic digestion. With respect to this regulation and also considering the slow kinetics of the anaerobic digestion process, thermal and chemical pretreatments of food waste prior to mesophilic anaerobic digestion were studied. A series of batch experiments to determine the biomethane potential of untreated as well as pretreated food waste was carried out. All tested conditions of both thermal and ozonation pretreatments resulted in an enhanced biomethane production. The kinetics of the anaerobic digestion process were, however, accelerated by thermal pretreatment at lower temperatures (<120 °C) only. The best result of 647.5 ± 10.6 mlCH4/gVS, which is approximately 52% higher as compared to the specific biomethane production of untreated food waste, was obtained with thermal pretreatment at 80 °C for 1.5 h. On the basis of net energy calculations, the enhanced biomethane production could cover the energy requirement of the thermal pretreatment. In contrast, the enhanced biomethane production with ozonation pretreatment is insufficient to supply the required energy for the ozonator.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Energy
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Authors
Javkhlan Ariunbaatar, Antonio Panico, Luigi Frunzo, Giovanni Esposito, Piet N.L. Lens, Francesco Pirozzi,