Abstract
The current study investigates the effect of hydrothermal pretreatment (HTP) on acidification of source-separated organics (SSO) in terms of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production and solubilization. Temperature and retention time for HTP of SSO ranged from 150 to 240 °C and 5 to 30 min, respectively. The soluble substance after hydrothermal pretreatment initially increased, reaching its peak at 210 °C and then declined gradually. The highest overall chemical oxygen demand (COD) solubilization of 63% was observed at “210 °C-20 min” compared to 17% for raw SSO. The highest VFAs yield of 1536 mg VFAs/g VSS added was observed at “210 °C-20 min” compared to 768 mg VFAs/g VSS for raw SSO. Intensification of hydrothermal pretreatment temperature beyond 210 °C resulted in the mineralization of the organics and adversely affected the process.
Highlights
Fulfilling the food and modern habitat demand for the growing population is one of the major challenges of the 21st century while reducing the adverse impact of the food waste, wood waste, yard and landscaping debris, and paper fibers or source-separated organics (SSO) production system on the environment [1]
As the temperature was elevated from 150 ◦ C to 220 ◦ C, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) solubilization percentage was enhanced from 14% to 34% and analysis of variance (ANOVA)
In spite of this, when the temperature increased to 240 ◦ C, the solubilization percentage dropped to 27%, see Figure 1b
Summary
Fulfilling the food and modern habitat demand for the growing population is one of the major challenges of the 21st century while reducing the adverse impact of the food waste, wood waste, yard and landscaping debris, and paper fibers or source-separated organics (SSO) production system on the environment [1]. Abundant solid waste generation and its appropriate treatment has become a global challenge. Food waste management hierarchy indicates that prevention is the best strategy, followed by biological treatment (anaerobic digestion and composting), thermal disintegration (incineration), and landfilling. Thermal treatment of solid waste requires a high amount of energy to evaporate the water, mineralize, and recover energy, while biological treatments are more cost-effective, reliable, and feasible [4]. Biological treatments such as anaerobic digestion (AD) and dark fermentation have been extensively studied for their ability to convert a wide variety of lignocellulosic biomass to methane and biohydrogen, respectively [5,6]
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