Energy and nutrient recovery from carbon rich food waste by sequential integration of two stage anaerobic digestion and constructed bioponic system

Abstract

Sustainability perspective is the fundamental secret for global economic and environmental security. Exponentially increasing population increases the uncertainty of fulfilling energy and food demands. Waste management, energy demands and food insecurity are the chronic global challenges that requires immediate attention. Several technologies are investigated to resolve these challenges to a greater extent but the sustainability indicators remain far from satisfactory in most of the cases. Advanced strategies, technologies and technological integrations are anticipated to reduce the burden of waste handling, management and increase resource recovery from waste. Technological interventions that could effectively convert waste to energy or other value-added resource is the central driving force to maintain global economic and environmental security. newlineThis study is an attempt to develop a sustainable decentralized system that can convert organic waste to energy and nutrients, which can be used as a source of fertilizer for food crop production. Anaerobic digestion (ADN) is a recommended cost-effective waste-to-wealth technology for renewable energy production. ADN is advantageous as it simultaneously aids in resolving the chronic global concerns of organic waste management and energy demands. Food waste contributes a significant portion of the global organic waste. Though food waste is a potential substrate for ADN, it exhibits few limitations including high biodegradability, moisture content, imbalanced nutrients (C/N), low alkalinity and hence low buffering capacity that can consequently lead to process instability and failure in an anaerobic digester. High C/N ratio is the most reported cause for process failure in food waste anaerobic digestion. In order to understand the influencing parameters that affects the process stability newline newline