Food waste-derived volatile fatty acids platform using an immersed membrane bioreactor

Steven Wainaina; Mohsen Parchami; Amir Mahboubi; Ilona Sárvári Horváth; Mohammad J Taherzadeh

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2018.11.104

Food waste-derived volatile fatty acids platform using an immersed membrane bioreactor

Bioresour Technol. 2019 Feb:274:329-334. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.11.104. Epub 2018 Dec 3.

Authors

Steven Wainaina¹, Mohsen Parchami¹, Amir Mahboubi¹, Ilona Sárvári Horváth¹, Mohammad J Taherzadeh²

Affiliations

¹ Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery, University of Borås, 501 90 Borås, Sweden.
² Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery, University of Borås, 501 90 Borås, Sweden. Electronic address: mohammad.taherzadeh@hb.se.

PMID: 30529480
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2018.11.104

Abstract

Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are the key intermediates from anaerobic digestion (AD) process that can be a platform to synthesize products of higher value than biogas. However, some obstacles still exist that prevent large-scale production and application of VFAs, key among them being the difficulty in recovering the acids from the fermentation medium and low product yields. In this study, a novel anaerobic immersed membrane bioreactor (iMBR) with robust cleaning capabilities, which incorporated frequent backwashing to withstand the complex AD medium, was designed and applied for production and in situ recovery of VFAs. The iMBR was fed with food waste and operated without pH control, achieving a high yield of 0.54 g VFA/g VS_added. The continuous VFA recovery process in the iMBR was investigated for 40 days at OLRs of 2 gVS/L/d and 4 gVS/L/d without significant change in the permeate flux at a maximum suspended solids concentration of 31 g/L.

Keywords: Food waste; Fouling control; Immersed membrane bioreactor; In situ recovery; Volatile fatty acids.

MeSH terms

Bioreactors*
Fatty Acids, Volatile / biosynthesis*
Fermentation
Food*

Substances

Fatty Acids, Volatile