Characterization of Italian food waste bio-methane potential evaluation via anaerobic digestion

Abstract

In Italy more than 7 Mtons of organic solid waste are generated each year, on average 117.29 kg/hab.year The eating habits of the Italian population was studied to identify the most consumed foods. The most consumed foods were used to prepare a representative sample of food waste. Two methods were used to estimate the bio-methane production potential. The first method, calculate the bio-methane production potential based on the concentrations of lipids, carbohydrates and proteins, the second method use the results of the elemental analysis. The characterization results showed a potential for generating bio-methane of 219 ml.CH4/g for method 1 and 534 ml.CH4/gSV for method 2. Considering the generation of food waste in Italy and the potential for bio-methane production results show that it would be possible to produce 1,543.x 106 and 3,092 x 106 m3CH4 for method 1 and 2 respectively and thus For the method 1, it is possible to recovery equivalent energy 50,942 TJ/year and 102,044 TJ/year for method 2.