IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i14p3875-d248977.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste with Unconventional Co-Substrates for Stable Biogas Production at High Organic Loading Rates

Author

Listed:
  • Swati Hegde

    (The Water Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19147, USA)

  • Thomas A. Trabold

    (Golisano Institute for Sustainability, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY 14623, USA)

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is widely considered a more sustainable food waste management method than conventional technologies, such as landfilling and incineration. To improve economic performance while maintaining AD system stability at commercial scale, food waste is often co-digested with animal manure, but there is increasing interest in food waste-only digestion. We investigated the stability of anaerobic digestion with mixed cafeteria food waste (CFW) as the main substrate, combined in a semi-continuous mode with acid whey, waste bread, waste energy drinks, and soiled paper napkins as co-substrates. During digestion of CFW without any co-substrates, the maximum specific methane yield (SMY) was 363 mL gVS −1 d −1 at organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.8 gVSL −1 d −1 , and reactor failure occurred at OLR of 3.5 gVSL −1 d −1 . Co-substrates of acid whey, waste energy drinks, and waste bread resulted in maximum SMY of 455, 453, and 479 mL gVS −1 d −1 , respectively, and it was possible to achieve stable digestion at OLR as high as 4.4 gVSL −1 d −1 . These results offer a potential approach to high organic loading rate digestion of food waste without using animal manure. Process optimization for the use of unconventional co-substrates may help enable deployment of anaerobic digesters for food waste management in urban and institutional applications and enable increased diversion of food waste from landfills in heavily populated regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Swati Hegde & Thomas A. Trabold, 2019. "Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste with Unconventional Co-Substrates for Stable Biogas Production at High Organic Loading Rates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-15, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:14:p:3875-:d:248977
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/14/3875/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/14/3875/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Constantin Stan & Gerardo Collaguazo & Constantin Streche & Tiberiu Apostol & Diana Mariana Cocarta, 2018. "Pilot-Scale Anaerobic Co-Digestion of the OFMSW: Improving Biogas Production and Startup," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-15, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xuemei Wang & Shikun Cheng & Zifu Li & Yu Men & Jiajun Wu, 2020. "Impacts of Cellulase and Amylase on Enzymatic Hydrolysis and Methane Production in the Anaerobic Digestion of Corn Straw," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-12, July.
    2. Zohaib Ur Rehman Afridi & Wu Jing & Hassan Younas, 2019. "Biogas Production and Fundamental Mass Transfer Mechanism in Anaerobic Granular Sludge," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Notodarmojo, Peni Astrini & Fujiwara, Takeshi & Habuer, & Pham Van, Dinh, 2022. "Effectiveness of oyster shell as alkali additive for two-stage anaerobic co-digestion: Carbon flow analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PC).
    4. He Song & Yue Zhang & Sigrid Kusch-Brandt & Charles J. Banks, 2020. "Comparison of Variable and Constant Loading for Mesophilic Food Waste Digestion in a Long-Term Experiment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-14, March.
    5. Karel Diéguez-Santana & Liliana B. Sarduy-Pereira & Neyfe Sablón-Cossío & Horacio Bautista-Santos & Fabiola Sánchez-Galván & Sebastiana del Monserrate Ruíz Cedeño, 2022. "Evaluation of the Circular Economy in a Pitahaya Agri-Food Chain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-17, March.
    6. Bedoić, Robert & Špehar, Ana & Puljko, Josip & Čuček, Lidija & Ćosić, Boris & Pukšec, Tomislav & Duić, Neven, 2020. "Opportunities and challenges: Experimental and kinetic analysis of anaerobic co-digestion of food waste and rendering industry streams for biogas production," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    7. Faraz Sufyan & Mehmood Ali & Sadia Khan & Nazia Hossain, 2023. "Biohythane Production from Domestic Wastewater Sludge and Cow Dung Mixture Using Two-Step Anaerobic Fermentation Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(19), pages 1-12, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jan Sprafke & Vicky Shettigondahalli Ekanthalu & Michael Nelles, 2020. "Continuous Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Biowaste with Crude Glycerol under Mesophilic Conditions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Tsigkou, Konstantina & Tsafrakidou, Panagiota & Zagklis, Dimitris & Panagiotouros, Anastasios & Sionakidis, Dimitris & Zontos, Dimitris Marios & Zafiri, Constantina & Kornaros, Michael, 2021. "Used disposable nappies and expired food products co-digestion: A pilot-scale system assessment," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(P1), pages 109-117.
    3. Mahamadi Nikiema & Narcis Barsan & Ynoussa Maiga & Marius K. Somda & Emilian Mosnegutu & Cheik A. T. Ouattara & Dayeri Dianou & Alfred S. Traore & Valentin Nedeff & Aboubakar S. Ouattara, 2022. "Optimization of Biogas Production from Sewage Sludge: Impact of Combination with Bovine Dung and Leachate from Municipal Organic Waste," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-12, April.
    4. Andrea Baccioli & Lorenzo Ferrari & Romain Guiller & Oumayma Yousfi & Francesco Vizza & Umberto Desideri, 2019. "Feasibility Analysis of Bio-Methane Production in a Biogas Plant: A Case Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, February.
    5. Hanxi Wang & Jianling Xu & Lianxi Sheng & Xuejun Liu & Meihan Zong & Difu Yao, 2019. "Anaerobic Digestion Technology for Methane Production Using Deer Manure Under Different Experimental Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-21, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:14:p:3875-:d:248977. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.