Abstract
The management of digestate from food waste (DFW) has become a big challenge for anaerobic digestion (AD) plants. It is crucial to understand the characteristics of DFW for its beneficial utilization. This study investigated the long-term characteristics of DFW from an industrial-scale AD plant in China for 16 months. The result showed that the characteristics of the DFW were relatively stable. The DFW contained considerable amounts of organic matter (23–40% of lignin and 12–26% of protein) and abundant nutrients (N, P, and K), with high concentrations of metals (e.g., 55.17 mg g−1 and 15.55 mg g−1 of Ca and Fe) and sulfur (1.40%) on a dry basis. Based on the results, pyrolysis and composting were evaluated as optional conversion ways of DFW. The pyrolysis temperature range of 500 °C to 600 °C was recommended for producing biochar. In this temperature range, the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller surface area of the produced biochar is over 120 m2 g−1. The composting offered the best potential for recovering the nutrients from DFW, but the high ammonia gas content (6970 ppm) should be paid attention to during composting.
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