Abstract
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a well-established process for the treatment of a wide variety of solid organic substrates, including the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). At industrial scale, the mechanical pretreatment is a fundamental step to reduce OFMSW particle size and to promote the hydrolysis within the subsequent AD process. Among the mechanical pretreatment technologies, press-extrusion has recently raised great interest for its possible application to either enhance the organic load to the digester or improve the overall process stability and methane yields. Aim of this study was in assessing the potential of the press-extrusion pretreatment to improve the performance of OFMSW anaerobic degradation. Batch tests were set up according to a full factorial design of experiments to assess the significance of the main operating parameters. The statistical analysis of results addressed further tests, carried out under semi-continuous feeding mode, to better discuss the possible application of press-extrusion for the greatest valorization of OFMSW under anaerobic conditions.
Highlights
The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) represents one of the most abundant biomass worldwide
anaerobic digestion (AD) represents the OFMSW treatment option that better implements the principles of the circular economy, which pursues the extensive recovery of residual streams as well as the minimization of disposal
Organic waste typically has high moisture as well as volatile solid (VS) content: the latter, which is converted into the soluble matter more used by microorganisms [26], accounts for the good biodegradability of this kind of waste
Summary
The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) represents one of the most abundant biomass worldwide. A further option to improve the organic load to the digester raises from the study of Mu et al [18], who pointed out that mixing the LF from OFMSW press-extrusion with the solid one originated from the same pretreatment may increase AD stability.
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