Determination of the biochemical methane potential of food waste after aerobic storage and aeration pretreatment

Abstract

AbstractFood waste represents a relevant fraction of municipal solid organic waste, and anaerobic digestion can be an eco‐friendly alternative for sustainable management in a circular economy framework. One of the challenges to the implementation of anaerobic digestion is the availability of easily degradable compounds in the substrate, which can be solved by the application of pretreatment to increase methane production. In this study, the influence of aerobic storage time and forced continuous aeration pretreatment on the biochemical methane potential of food waste was evaluated. The results demonstrate an increase in the methane production concerning the total volatile solids (TVS) of food waste stored for 7 days (425 NmL CH4 g−1 TVS) compared with fresh samples without pretreatment (375 NmL CH4 g−1 TVS). The adoption of forced and continuous aeration pretreatment on food waste for 4 days produced 456 NmL CH4 g−1 TVS for the leachate, 1.22‐fold higher than that for the food waste without storage. In conclusion, the application of aeration pretreatment previous to anaerobic digestion can be an alternative to increase the methane potential from food waste. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.