Abstract
Biogas derived from the decentralized anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste may be used to generate electrical and thermal energy for nearby residents through combined heat and power generation technology. A mobile food-waste-to-energy system in conjunction with an anaerobic digester and biogas engine was developed for food waste (FW) treatment and energy output. The scale-up was simulated to explore the methane yield and energy flow at different ambient temperatures of 0 °C, 10 °C, 20 °C, 30 °C and different feedstock of 200 kg, 500 kg FW. Accordingly, the results demonstrated that the installed system with a 1 m3 digester had a methane yield of 0.55L CH4 /g VS when the feedstock load was 30 kg FW/d and the Organic Load Rate (OLR) was 5.4 g VS /L, while the thermal and electrical efficiencies of this system were 31% and 16%, respectively. The corresponding exhaust gas of the thermal energy from the biogas combustion was recovered by a heat exchanger in order to keep the digester at mesophilic conditions. The simulations carried out on the scale-up systems under loads of 200 kg FW/d and 500 kg FW/d achieved a thermal energy balance at different ambient temperatures of 0 °C, 10 °C, 20 °C and 30 °C. Improvements were proposed in the optimized system by optimizing pre-treatment facilities as well as the AD reactor, biogas engine and heat exchanger. The net thermal and electrical energy output of the optimized system at 500 kg FW/d were 175.93kWh and 163.90kWh, respectively. The energy generated by the FW-to-energy system illustrated by the Sankey diagrams depicts that was enough for operation without the need of extra heat and a power supply, moreover, the surplus energy may be utilized for its neighboring communities. In addition, the optimized system under the same OLR were increased by 87% and 135%, regards the thermal and electrical energy outputs, respectively in comparison with the current system.
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