Enhancing anaerobic digestion of food waste through biochemical methane potential assays at different substrate: inoculum ratios

Shakira R. Hobbs, Amy E. Landis, Bruce E. Rittmann, Michelle N. Young, Prathap Parameswaran

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

108 Scopus citations

Abstract

Food waste has a high energy potential that can be converted into useful energy in the form of methane via anaerobic digestion. Biochemical Methane Potential assays (BMPs) were conducted to quantify the impacts on methane production of different ratios of food waste. Anaerobic digester sludge (ADS) was used as the inoculum, and BMPs were performed at food waste:inoculum ratios of 0.42, 1.42, and 3.0 g chemical oxygen demand/g volatile solids (VS). The 1.42 ratio had the highest CH4-COD recovery: 90% of the initial total chemical oxygen demand (TCOD) was from food waste, followed by ratios 0.42 and 3.0 at 69% and 57%, respectively. Addition of food waste above 0.42 caused a lag time for CH4 production that increased with higher ratios, which highlighted the negative impacts of overloading with food waste. The Gompertz equation was able to represent the results well, and it gave lag times of 0, 3.6 and 30 days and maximum methane productions of 370, 910, and 1950 mL for ratios 0.42, 1.42 and 3.0, respectively. While ratio 3.0 endured a long lag phase and low VSS destruction, ratio 1.42 achieved satisfactory results for all performance criteria. These results provide practical guidance on food-waste-to-inoculum ratios that can lead to optimizing methanogenic yield.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)612-617
Number of pages6
JournalWaste Management
Volume71
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd

Funding

This study was financially supported by the USA National Science Foundation (Awards 1335884/1066658/1246547/1553126). Shakira Hobbs was supported by an IGERT-SUN fellowship funded by the National Science Foundation (Award 1144616). Special thanks to the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology at Arizona State University and Rikin Patel. This study was financially supported by the USA National Science Foundation (Awards 1335884 / 1066658 / 1246547 / 1553126 ). Shakira Hobbs was supported by an IGERT-SUN fellowship funded by the National Science Foundation (Award 1144616 ). Special thanks to the Biodesign Swette Center for Environmental Biotechnology at Arizona State University and Rikin Patel.

FundersFunder number
Center for Environmental Biotechnology at Arizona State University
National Science Foundation (NSF USA)1335884 / 1066658 / 1246547 / 1553126
National Science Foundation Arctic Social Science Program1144616

    Keywords

    • Anaerobic digestion
    • Biochemical methane potential
    • Food waste
    • Hydrolysis
    • Municipal sludge
    • Organic waste

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Waste Management and Disposal

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