Pilot Scale Anaerobic Digestion of Korean Food Waste

파일로트 규모 음식쓰레기 2상 혐기소화 처리공정에 관한 연구

A 5 ton/day pilot scale two-phase anaerobic digester was constructed and tasted to treat Korean food wastes in Anyang city. The process was developed based on 3 years of lab-scale experimental results on am optimim treatment method for the recovery of biogas and humus. Problems related to food waste are ever Increasing quantity among municipal solid wastes(MSW) and high moisture and salt contents. Thus our food waste produces large amounts of leachate and bed odor in landfill sites which are being exhausted. The easily degradable presorted food waste was efficiently treated in the two-phase anaerobic digestion process. The waste contained in plastic bags was shredded and then screened for the removal of inert material such as fabrics and plastics, and subsequently put into the two-stage reactors. Heavy and light inerts such as bones, shells, spoons and plastic pieces were again removed by gravity differences. The residual organic component was effectively hydrolyzed and acidified in the first reactor with 5 days space time at pH of about 6.5. The second, methanization reactor part of which is filled with anaerobic fillters, converted the acids into methane with pH between 7.4 to 7.8. The space time for the second reactor was 15 days. The effluent from the second reactor was recycled to the first reactor to provide alkalinities. The process showed stable steady state operation with the maximum organic rate of 7.9 $kgVS/m^3day$ and the volatile solid reduction efficiency of about 70%. The total of 3.6 tons presorted MSW containing 2.9 tons of food organic was treated to produce about $230m^3$ of biogas with 70% of methane and 80kg humus. This process is extended to full scale treating 15 tons of food waste a day in Euiwang city and the produced biogas is utilized for the heating/cooling of adjacent buildings.