title: Hydrothermal conversion of municipal organic waste into resources.
abstract: Sub- and supercritical water have been focused on as an environmentally attractive reaction media where organic materials can be decomposed into smaller molecules. We applied a hydrothermal reaction in subcritical water to the treatment of rabbit food as a model municipal solid waste. The reaction was carried out in a batch reactor at the temperature range of 473-623 K or in a semi-continuous reactor with the temperature profile from 473 to 573 K. The liquid reaction products were separated into water-soluble and water-insoluble parts. The water-soluble part was analyzed in terms of glucose and organic acids. For the batch reactor, the largest amount of water-soluble component was approximately 50%. Major organic acids detected were acetic acid and lactic acid. The largest yields were 2.6% for acetic acid and 3.2% for lactic acid. The largest yield of glucose was 33% at 523 K. For the semi-continuous reactor, the glucose yields were 11.5%, 3.9% and 8.7% in each fraction obtained at 473, 523, and 573 K, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry and Biochemistry, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan. mgoto@kumamoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Motonobu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: Ryusaku
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Obuchi
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hirose
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sakaki
authors.forename: Masao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shibata
mesh_terms: D019342:Acetic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D000821:Animal Feed; D018533:Biomass; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D006358:Hot Temperature; D007700:Kinetics; D019344:Lactic Acid / Q000378:metabolism; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D019344:Lactic Acid; D005947:Glucose; D019342:Acetic Acid