Self-sustaining smoldering as a novel disposal approach for food waste with high moisture content

Abstract

This work aims to explore the self-sustaining smoldering treatment (SSST) for the destruction of food waste. The food waste used in this work mainly consists of cereal, vegetable, and meat. To examine the processing procedures and parameters, three experimental groups (raw food waste, food-waste paste and food-waste paste blended with anthracite) and five variables (moisture content, sand size, sand-to-food waste ratio, air flow and food waste-to-coal ratio) were extensively investigated. Results show that raw food waste with 40% moisture content can be disposed by SSST with the mass destruction ratio over 90%. However, the robustness of SSST for raw food waste is constrained by the heterogeneous issue due to a variety of components and sizes of food waste. This issue is addressed through stir pre-processing of raw food waste as food-waste paste. The robustness of SSST for food waste is significantly further enhanced only if a slight mass fraction of anthracite (<20% of raw food waste) is supplemented. This provides an alternative solution for employing SSST for raw food waste with very high moisture content.