Environmental sustainability assessment of food waste valorization options

Food waste can be valorized through different technologies, such as anaerobic digestion, incineration, and animal feed production. In this study we analyzed the environmental performance of two food waste valorization scenarios from a company of the retail sector in Belgium, through exergy analysis, exergetic life cycle assessment (ELCA), and a traditional life cycle assessment (LCA). In scenario 1 all food waste was considered to be valorized in an anaerobic digestion (producing electricity, heat, digestate and sorting the packaging material to be used as fuel for cement industry), while in scenario 2 a bread fraction was valorized to produce animal feed and a non-bread fraction was valorized in an anaerobic digestion (producing the same products on scenario 1, but in lower amounts). Scenario 2 was 10% more efficient than scenario 1 in the exergy analysis. For the ELCA and the single score LCA, scenario 2 presented lower environmental impacts than scenario 1 (32% and 26% lower, respectively). These results were mainly due to the avoided products from traditional supply chain (animal feed produced from agricultural products) and lower exergy loss at the feed production plant. Nevertheless, the high dry matter content of the bread waste played an important role on these results, therefore it should be pointed out that valorizing food waste to animal feed seems to be a better option only for the fractions of food waste with low water content (as bread waste).     

Environmental and economic analysis of management systems for biodegradable waste

The management system for solid and liquid organic waste affects the environment and surrounding technical systems in several ways. In order to decrease the environmental impact and resource use, biological waste treatment and alternative solutions for sewage treatment are often advocated. These alternatives include increased agricultural use of waste residuals. To analyse whether such proposed systems indicate improvements for the environment and its sustainability, systems analysis is a useful method. The changes in environmental impact and resource use is not only a result of changes in waste treatment methods, but also largely a result of changes in surrounding systems (energy and agriculture) caused by changes in waste management practices. In order to perform a systems analysis, a substance-flow simulation model, the organic waste research model (ORWARE), has been used. The results are evaluated by using methodology from life cycle assessment (LCA). An economic analysis was also performed on three of the studied scenarios. The management system for solid organic waste and sewage in the municipality of Uppsala, Sweden, was studied. Three scenarios for different treatments of solid waste were analysed: incineration with heat recovery, composting, and anaerobic digestion. These three scenarios included conventional sewage treatment. A fourth scenario reviewed was anaerobic digestion of solid waste, using urine-separating toilets and separate handling of the urine fraction. The results are only valid for the case study and under the assumptions made. In this case study anaerobic digestion result in the lowest environmental impact of all the solid waste management systems, but is costly. Economically, incineration with heat recovery is the cheapest way to treat solid waste. Composting gives environmental advantages compared to incineration methods, without significantly increased costs. Urine separation, which may be implemented together with any solid waste treatment, has great advantages, particularly in its low impact on the environment. However, there is a large increase in acidification.     

污水厂污泥与厨余垃圾厌氧/混合厌氧消化研究进展

本文主要对国内外城市污水厂污泥与厨余垃圾混合厌氧消化的研究进行了综述,介绍了厌氧消化技术在污水厂污泥和厨余垃圾处理处置中的应用,对两种废物单独厌氧消化和混合厌氧消化技术进行了比较,分析了城市污水厂污泥与厨余垃圾混合厌氧消化的可行性以及工艺参数对混合厌氧消化的影响,并对城市污水厂污泥与厨余垃圾的混合厌氧消化技术的研究和应用提出了展望。     

Thermophilic adaptation of a mesophilic anaerobic sludge for food waste treatment

As opposed to mesophilic, thermophilic anaerobic digestion of food waste can increase the biogas output of reactors. To facilitate the transition of anaerobic digesters, this paper investigated the impact of adapting mesophilic sludge to thermophilic conditions. A 5L bench scale reactor was seeded with mesophilic granular sludge obtained from an up-flow anaerobic sludge blanket digester. After 13 days of operation at 35 degrees C, the reactor temperature was instantaneously increased to 55 degrees C and operated at this temperature until day 21. The biomass was then fed food waste on days 21, 42 and 63, each time with an F/M (Food/Microorganism) ratio increasing from 0.12 to 4.43 gVS/gVSS. Sludge samples were collected on days 0, 21, 42 and 63 to conduct substrate activity tests, and reactor biogas production was monitored during the full experimental period. The sludge collected on day 21 demonstrated that the abrupt temperature change had no pasteurization effect, but rather lead to a biomass with a fermentative activity of 3.58 g Glucose/gVSS/d and a methanogenic activity of 0.47 and 0.26 g Substrate/gVSS/d, related respectively, to acetoclastic and hydrogenophilic microorganisms. At 55 degrees C, an ultimate gas production (Go) and a biodegradation potential (Bo) of 0.2-1.4 L(STP)/gVS(fed) and of 0.1-0.84 L(STP) CH(4)/gVS(fed) were obtained, respectively. For the treatment of food waste, a fully adapted inoculum was developed by eliminating the initial time-consuming acclimatization stage from mesophilic to thermophilic conditions. The feeding stage was initiated within 20 days, but to increase the population of thermophilic methanogenic microorganisms, a substrate supply program must be carefully observed.     

市政污泥与高浓度废弃物的厌氧共消化：一种生物质能源净产生的途径

厌氧共消化是一种绿色、实用的回收废弃物中能源的技术。本文介绍了厌氧共消化技术的原理，并介绍了美国佐治亚州F. Wayne Hil水资源处理中心采用油脂废弃物（FOG）和含糖工业废水与市政污泥进行连续流厌氧共消化的实际应用案例。结果表明，厌氧共消化可显著提高甲烷产量达2倍以上，甲烷产量随着高浓度有机废弃物负荷率及厌氧消化反应器停留时间的延长而增加，且COD和VS降解率可保持在合理范围内，经济效益显著。     

1996年中国厌氧技术研究新进展

本文综合叙述了１９９６年度国内关于厌氧消化技术的研究，包括基础理论的研究，消化工艺的研究，以及厌氧消化应用于各种废物处理的研究。     

厌氧消化在纺织印染废水处理中的地位

纺织工业废水具有高浓度、高色度、高碱度、低BOD/COD比值的水质特性。近几年来对该污水采用了厌氧消化工艺,获得了良好的处理效果。本文对该污水处理系统工程中的厌氧消化技术进行小结和评价,从而确定了厌氧消化技术在纺织工业行业污水处理的地位。     

Improvement of fruit and vegetable waste anaerobic digestion performance and stability with co-substrates addition

The effect of fish waste (FW), abattoir wastewater (AW) and waste activated sludge (WAS) addition as co-substrates on the fruit and vegetable waste (FVW) anaerobic digestion performance was investigated under mesophilic conditions using four anaerobic sequencing batch reactors (ASBR) with the aim of finding the better co-substrate for the enhanced performance of co-digestion. The reactors were operated at an organic loading rate of 2.46–2.51 g volatile solids (VS) l⁻¹ d⁻¹, of which approximately 90% were from FVW, and a hydraulic retention time of 10 days. It was observed that AW and WAS additions with a ratio of 10% VS enhanced biogas yield by 51.5% and 43.8% and total volatile solids removal by 10% and 11.7%, respectively. However FW addition led to improvement of the process stability, as indicated by the low VFAs/Alkalinity ratio of 0.28, and permitted anaerobic digestion of FVW without chemical alkali addition. Despite a considerable decrease in the C/N ratio from 34.2 to 27.6, the addition of FW slightly improved the gas production yield (8.1%) compared to anaerobic digestion of FVW alone. A C/N ratio between 22 and 25 seemed to be better for anaerobic co-digestion of FVW with its co-substrates. The most significant factor for enhanced FVW digestion performance was the improved organic nitrogen content provided by the additional wastes. Consequently, the occurrence of an imbalance between the different groups of anaerobic bacteria which may take place in unstable anaerobic digestion of FVW could be prevented.     

Biogas production from pistachio (Pistaciavera L.) de-hulling waste

Pistachio processing wastes create significant waste management problems unless properly managed. However, there are not well-established methods to manage the waste generated during the processing of pistachios. Anaerobic digestion can be an attractive option not only for the management of pistachio processing wastes but also producing renewable energy in the form of biogas. This study investigated anaerobic digestibility and biogas production potential of pistachio de-hulling waste from wet de-hulling process. Best to our knowledge, this is the first report on biogas production from pistachio de-hulling waste. The results indicated that (1) anaerobic digestion of pistachio de-hulling wastewater, solid waste, and their mixtures in different ratios is possible with varying levels of performance; (2) 1 L of de-hulling wastewater (chemical oxygen demand concentration of 30 g/L) produced 0.7 L of methane; (3) 1 L of de-hulling wastewater and 20 g of pistachio de-hulling solid waste produced 1.25 L of methane; and (4) 1 g of de-hulling solid waste produced 62.6 mL of methane (or 134 mL of biogas).     

Impact of food industrial waste on anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge and pig manure

The performance of an anaerobic digestion process is much dependent on the type and the composition of the material to be digested. The effects on the degradation process of co-digesting different types of waste were examined in two laboratory-scale studies. In the first investigation, sewage sludge was co-digested with industrial waste from potato processing. The co-digestion resulted in a low buffered system and when the fraction of starch-rich waste was increased, the result was a more sensitive process, with process overload occurring at a lower organic loading rate (OLR). In the second investigation, pig manure, slaughterhouse waste, vegetable waste and various kinds of industrial waste were digested. This resulted in a highly buffered system as the manure contributed to high amounts of ammonia. However, it is important to note that ammonia might be toxic to the micro-organisms. Although the conversion of volatile fatty acids was incomplete the processes worked well with high gas yields, 0.8-1.0 m3 kg(-1) VS.     

污泥高固体厌氧消化研究进展

厌氧消化是实现污泥的减量化、稳定化和资源化的重要手段,相对于传统的低浓度污泥厌氧消化工艺高固体污泥厌氧消化可以直接利用污水处理厂排放的脱水污泥,具有设施体积小、单位容积产气率较高和水耗及能耗较低等优势。本文综述了近年来污泥高固体消化的研究进展,从污泥高固体厌氧消化的基本特征出发,总结了污泥高固体厌氧消化的影响因素和对反应器的要求;同时对污泥高固体消化存在的搅拌不匀、传质传热困难、有机质降解率偏低、搅拌系统不成熟等问题作了简要分析,这些问题都还有待于深入研究解决。     

Spaghetti soup: The complex world of food waste behaviours

There is growing awareness of the positive impact of reducing the amount of wasted food on greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, food and water security, and land use. In developed nations, food waste generated in homes is a large contributor to the total amount of food waste. The behaviours and practices associated with this waste prevention (and waste generation) are complex for a number of reasons: food waste is the result of multiple, interacting activities and this leads to separation between the activity and their consequences. These behaviours are usually performed for reasons unrelated to waste prevention and have both a marked habitual element and a pronounced emotional component. Furthermore, the prevention of food waste has less ‘visibility’ to other people (e.g. neighbours) than many other pro-environmental behaviours (e.g. recycling), and therefore social norms around ‘waste’ play a reduced role compared to more ‘visible’ activities.This paper discusses insights into these behaviours from research funded by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and its partners in the UK. It discusses how these insights have been used in the development of a successful public-engagement campaign, which has been influential in the recent reduction in household food waste. These insights are also discussed in light of commonly used behavioural models, highlighting that many of these models are not designed for multiple, complex behaviours. However, considering the subject of food waste through the ‘lenses’ of different academic disciplines has helped the development of the public engagement on this issue.     

城市污水厂混合污泥好氧消化处理研究

以城市污水处理厂的初沉污泥与剩余污泥的混合污泥为对象,研究了影响污泥好氧消化处理的各项因素.通过测定氧摄取速率(OUR)和此污泥好氧速率(SOUR),对实验结果进行了探讨.     

Identifying motivations and barriers to minimising household food waste

The amount of food discarded by UK households is substantial and, to a large extent, avoidable. Furthermore, such food waste has serious environmental consequences. If household food waste reduction initiatives are to be successful they will need to be informed by people's motivations and barriers to minimising household food waste. This paper reports a qualitative study of the thoughts, feelings and experiences of 15 UK household food purchasers, based on semi-structured interviews. Two core categories of motives to minimise household food waste were identified: (1) waste concerns and (2) doing the ‘right’ thing. A third core category illustrated the importance of food management skills in empowering people to keep household food waste to a minimum. Four core categories of barriers to minimising food waste were also identified: (1) a ‘good’ provider identity; (2) minimising inconvenience; (3) lack of priority; and (4) exemption from responsibility. The wish to avoid experiencing negative emotions (such as guilt, frustration, annoyance, embarrassment or regret) underpinned both the motivations and the barriers to minimising food waste. Findings thus reveal potentially conflicting personal goals which may hinder existing food waste reduction attempts.     

Piggery waste treatment by anaerobic digestion and nutrient removal by ionic exchange

Piggery wastes must be treated before their disposal. The high solids content and high chemical oxygen demand of piggery wastes indicated that anaerobic biological treatment could be successfully applied as primary treatment. For that reason, a comparison between upflow anaerobic sludge bed reactor (UASB) and anaerobic fixed bed reactor (AFBR) at a similar organic volumetric loading rate of 5 kg DQO/m³ day was carried out. 60% of the piggery waste COD was removed with the AFBR compared to 40% with the UASB, thus showing a better performance of the AFBR. After 1-h sedimentation secondary process, both anaerobic effluents were treated by ionic exchange with natural zeolite due to their high values of ammoniacal nitrogen (NH⁺₄ plus free NH₃). The high removal of nutrients reported (90%) shows zeolite to be a good choice as tertiary treatment.     

Modelling anaerobic biofilm reactors--a review

Anaerobic treatment has become a technically as well as economically feasible option for treatment of liquid effluents after the development of reactors such as the upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor, expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor, anaerobic biofilter and anaerobic fluidized bed reactor (AFBR). Considerable effort has gone into developing mathematical models for these reactors in order to optimize their design, design the process control systems used in their operation and enhance their operational efficiency. This article presents a critical review of the different mathematical models available for these reactors. The unified anaerobic digestion model (ADM1) and its application to anaerobic biofilm reactors are also outlined.     

Optimizing the treatment and disposal of municipal solid wastes using mathematical programming—A case study in a Greek region

Goal of the work is to present a simplified methodology to optimize an integrated solid waste management system. The methodology performs two optimizations, namely: (i) minimization of the total cost of the MSW system and (ii) minimization of the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions (CO_2e) generated by the whole system. The methodology is modeled via non-linear mathematical equations, uses 32 decision variables and does not require complex LCA databases. The proposed model optimally allocates eight MSW components (paper, cardboard, plastics, metals, glass, food wastes, yard wastes and other wastes) to four MSW management technologies (incineration, composting, anaerobic digestion, and landfilling) after source separation of recyclables has taken place. The Region of East-Macedonia and Thrace in Greece was selected as a case study. Results showed that there is a trade off between cost and CO_2e emissions. Incineration and composting were favored as the principal treatment technologies, while landfilling was always the least desirable management technology under both objective functions. The recycling participation rate significantly affected all optimum scenarios.     

Modeling of real scale waste activated sludge anaerobic digestion process by Anaerobic Digestion Model 1 (ADM1)

In this study, real-scale wastewater treatment plant (Hurma WWTP) sludge anaerobic digestion process was modeled by Anaerobic Digestion Model (ADM1) with the purpose of generating the data to understand the process better by contributing to the prediction of the process operational conditions and process performance, which will be a base for future anaerobic sludge stabilization process investments.

Real-scale anaerobic sludge digestion process data was evaluated in terms of known process and state variables and also process yields. Average VS removal yield, methane production yield, and methane production rate values of the anaerobic sludge digestion unit were calculated as 46.4%, 0.49 m³CH₄/kg VS_removed, and 0.33 m³ CH₄/m³day, respectively. In this study, ADM1 was intended to predict the behavior of real-scale anaerobic digester processing sewage sludge under dynamic conditions. To estimate the variables of real-scale sludge anaerobic digestion process with high accuracy and to provide high model prediction performance, values of the four parameters (disintegration rate constant, carbohydrate hydrolysis rate constant, protein hydrolysis rate constant, and lipid hydrolysis rate constant) that have strong effects on structured ADM1 were estimated by using the parameter estimation module in Aquasim program and their values were found as 0.101, 10, 10, and 9.99, respectively. When the numbers of kinetic parameters with the processes included in ADM1 along with the dynamic and non-linear structure of the real scale anaerobic digestion were taken into consideration, model simulations were in good agreement with measured results of the biogas flow rate, methane flow rate, pH, total alkalinity, and volatile fatty acids.     

Recycling, reuse and energetic valuation of meat industry wastes in Extremadura (Spain)

The environmental problem caused by the effluents from the four main agrifood industries in Extremadura (W Spain) is evaluated in the present work. In particular, attention is paid to the management of wastes from slaughterhouse operations. Pollution is quantified in terms of equivalent population and biological oxygen demand, for which very high values are reported.Efforts are also focused on the search of viable technical solutions for the treatment of those residues and their energetic valuation. In this sense, anaerobic digestion techniques are proposed, not only because they lead to a drastic decrease in their pollution potential, but also because significant volumes of biogas are obtained. This biogas might be used to produce electricity to be transferred to the electrical network. This way, anaerobic digestion plants would allow depreciation within a relatively short period.In particular, an analysis of the economics of a plant for the codigestion of solid and liquid effluents from meat industry is carried out, and a payback time between 7 and 8 years was achieved.     

Landfill Bioreactor Cells as Ecofilters for Extraction of Bio-energy and Nutrients from Solid Wastes

This paper describes a modified, ecologically based waste treatment technique, where municipal solid waste is anaerobically treated in landfill reactorcells in a way that both bio-energy and nutrients can be recovered. The controlled landfill reactorcell ('bioreactor-cell') serves as an anaerobic filter, where energy is extracted as biogas while nutrients are recovered through the leachates. The leachates can be used as fertilizer in e.g. energy forests within the controlled landfill area, and thus nutrients can be brought back into an ecocycle. At the same time anaerobic conditions result in an effective immobilization of heavy metals and other pollutants, e.g. through complexation to organic matter or as insoluble metal sulphides, which are immobilized in the fermentation residue. The long-lived organic fraction, remaining after the fermentation process has declined, containing a high content of lignine, serves as a water-holding matrix. Thus it helps to enforce a sustainable high moisture level, resulting in sustainable anaerobic conditions with heavy metals retained on a long-term basis. Also non-degradable products, like plastics, help to shield off oxygen and maintain reliable anaerobic conditions. Landfilling of organic matter under anaerobic conditions is a measure to counteract increasing concentrations of CO₂ in the atmosphere, resulting from human activities. A small fraction of the organic matter is long-term accumulated in the landfill, and the processes can be compared to those of natural wetlands.