Abstract
Food waste was massively disposed at landfills daily, and this method is no longer effective in managing waste due to the limited space and environmental issues. An alternative solution was explored in managing the food waste, and anaerobic digestion serve as the best solution. Food waste was digested anaerobically in a lab-scale and pilot-scale anaerobic digester. The performance of a batch pilot-scale anaerobic digestion of food waste, on the other hand, is less documented. The goal of this research is to look into a batch pilot-scale anaerobic digester for food waste, with a focus on methane potential and kinetic studies. A single-stage anaerobic digestion of food waste was carried out with an inoculum to substrate ratio (I/S) of 2.0. A variety of tests were carried out to identify the properties of the food waste and the inoculum employed. Effluent was collected daily for the monitoring process. The pH and volatile fatty acid to total alkalinity ratio (VFA/TA) were monitored daily to ensure that the anaerobic digestion process remained stable. The VFA/TA ratio suggested that the anaerobic digestion process was stable throughout the anaerobic digestion process. The methane accumulation for 26 days monitoring is 463250 mL. The ultimate methane yield of 5103.6 mL CH4/gVS was observed. The maximum removal efficiency for TS, VS, and COD in this investigation was 85.32, 94.15, and 93.52 %, showing that food waste was efficiently decomposed for biomethane conversion. The Modified Gompertz (GM) and Logistic function models were used to conduct the kinetic analysis. The results reveal that the GM model provides a higher R2 value than the logistic function model, thus the GM model is more suited in explaining the performance of the anaerobic digestion process.
Bio-hythane production from food waste by dark fermentation coupled with anaerobic digestion process: A long-term pilot scale experience
