Comprehensive insights into the organic fractions on solid-liquid separation performance of anaerobic digestates from food waste

Yang Yu; Panpan Li; Jingxue Zhang; Jie Li; Ran Yu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149608

Comprehensive insights into the organic fractions on solid-liquid separation performance of anaerobic digestates from food waste

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Dec 15:800:149608. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149608. Epub 2021 Aug 12.

Authors

Yang Yu¹, Panpan Li², Jingxue Zhang², Jie Li³, Ran Yu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, No. 2 Sipailou Street, Nanjing 210096, China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China. Electronic address: yuyangseu@seu.edu.cn.
² Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Energy and Environment, Southeast University, No. 2 Sipailou Street, Nanjing 210096, China; Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing 210009, China.
³ School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China.

PMID: 34426318
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149608

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is an effective approach for food waste treatment and valorization. However, AD is limited by proper disposal of the food waste digestates in megacities. The objective of this study was to elucidate the dominant factors on solid-liquid separation performance of the digestates from food wastes. Results indicated that the composition differences in organic fractions showed significant impacts on solid-liquid separation performance by comparing the digestates from different cities in China. Dissolved organic matter (DOM), especially for proteins and carbohydrates, varied between the digestates in various cities, which may lead to the difference in solid-liquid separation performance. Digestate with lowest proteins (33.86 mg/L) from Shanghai's food waste AD plant had the best dewatering performance. In contrast, digestate from Nanjing's food waste AD plant showed the worst dewatering performance. Pearson's correlation analysis indicated that there is a significant correlation between soluble protein and the dewaterability of digestates (R² > 0.9573, p < 0.03), the lower soluble protein achieved higher dewaterability of digestates.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Dewaterability; Digestate; Dissolved organic matter; Food waste.

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
China
Food*
Refuse Disposal*
Sewage

Substances

Sewage