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Enhancing the energetic potential of Mediterranean food waste by anaerobic co‐digestion with sewage sludge
Author(s) -
Hamrouni Yosra M. B.,
Cheikh Ridha B.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
environmental progress and sustainable energy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.495
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1944-7450
pISSN - 1944-7442
DOI - 10.1002/ep.13512
Subject(s) - anaerobic digestion , food waste , sewage sludge , methane , pulp and paper industry , chemistry , biodegradation , environmental science , sewage , waste management , zoology , environmental engineering , biology , engineering , organic chemistry
Mediterranean Food Waste (FW) with high Carbon/Nitrogen (C/N) ratio (≈31) and a biodegradability (BD) above 75%, were anaerobically co‐digested with Sewage Sludge (SS), in both batch and semicontinuous processing systems. Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) tests were carried out for five mixture ratios (VS basis). The highest methane yield was obtained for the Food Waste to Sewage Sludge (FW/SS) ratio of 3:1, reaching a Specific Methane Production (SMP) of of 452 ml CH 4 /g VS added . Moreover, this ratio has shown a BD of 40%, twofold lower than the one obtained for digestion of FW alone. Applying the semi‐continuous process, a methane yield of 200 ml CH 4 /g VS was obtained at the high Organic Loading Rate (OLR) of 8 g VS/L·day, indicating a good performance of the system facing a high daily feeding. A predictive study of the energy efficiency of this system provided an estimated daily production of 1.4 kilowatt‐hour electricity load (KWh el )/kg VS added and 2.2 kilowatt‐hour thermal load (KWh th )/kg VS added .