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Two-Phase Anaerobic Digestion of Food Wastes for Hydrogen and Methane Production

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Book cover Enriched Methane

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

Abstract

Food waste is successfully treated by anaerobic digestion process, where the organic matter is converted into methane. On the other hand, food waste bioprocessing to produce hydrogen has been only recently implemented, wherein a number of expensive pretreatment techniques have been proven. This chapter describes the recent studies on hydrogen and methane production from food waste using a dark fermentation reactor coupled with anaerobic digestion at thermophilic temperature. The use of external chemicals to control the pH was avoided, but sludge recirculation from the methanogenic reactor to the dark fermentation was exploited to maintain the system in an optimal pH range for production of a gas mixture with the typical composition of enriched methane. Ammonia accumulation and variation was observed during 1 year of process monitoring and was finally elaborated with a chemometric analysis tool, giving back useful results to be implemented in an automatic process control based on correlation between ammonia, conductivity and alkalinity.

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Abbreviations

ATP:

Adenosin triphosphate

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

CSTR:

Continuous stirred tank reactor

D:

Dilution rate

EM:

Enriched methane

FW:

Food waste

GHG:

Greenhouse gas

GPR:

Gas production rate

HRT:

Hydraulic retention time

LAB:

Lactic acid bacteria

NADH:

Nicotinammide adenina dinucleotide

OFMSW:

Organic fraction of municipal solid waste

OLR:

Organic loading rate

SGP:

Specific gas production

SHP:

Specific hydrogen production

SMP:

Specific methane production

TS:

Total solids

TVS:

Total volatile solids

VFA:

Volatile fatty acid

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the European Union, 7° Framework program 2007–2013, Valorgas Project (ENERGY.2009.3.2.2, Valorization of food waste to biogas), PRIN-MIUR 2007. (Produzione di bio-hythane attraverso processo di digestione anaerobica a due stadi di biomasse primarie (energy crops) e secondarie (rifiuti)), and Industria 2015, (Ministero per lo Sviluppo Economico, “Produzione di energia rinnovabile con impatto minimo da un mix di biomasse e rifiuti speciali non pericolosi attraverso processi innovative”) for the financial support of these studies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, University Ca’ Foscari of Venice, Calle Larga Santa Marta, 30127, Venice, Italy

    Cristina Cavinato & Paolo Pavan

  2. Department of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Strada Le Grazie 15, 37134, Verona, Italy

    David Bolzonella & Franco Cecchi

Authors
  1. Cristina Cavinato
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  2. David Bolzonella
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  3. Paolo Pavan
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  4. Franco Cecchi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Cristina Cavinato .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, Rome, Italy

    Marcello De Falco

  2. ITM-CNR, University of Calabria, Rende, Italy

    Angelo Basile

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Cavinato, C., Bolzonella, D., Pavan, P., Cecchi, F. (2016). Two-Phase Anaerobic Digestion of Food Wastes for Hydrogen and Methane Production. In: De Falco, M., Basile, A. (eds) Enriched Methane. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22192-2_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22192-2_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22191-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22192-2

  • eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)

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