Effects of ultrasound pre-treatment on the amount of dissolved organic matter extracted from food waste.
This paper describes a series of studies on the effects of food waste disintegration using an ultrasonic generator and the production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) by anaerobic hydrolysis. The results suggest that ultrasound treatment can significantly increase COD [chemical oxygen demand], proteins and reducing sugars, but decrease that of lipids in food waste supernatant. Ultrasound pre-treatment boosted the production of VFAs dramatically during the fermentation of food waste. At an ultrasonic energy density of 480W/L, we treated two kinds of food waste (total solids (TS): 40 and 100g/L, respectively) with ultrasound for 15min. The amount of COD dissolved from the waste increased by 1.6-1.7-fold, proteins increased by 3.8-4.3-fold, and reducing sugars increased by 4.4-3.6-fold, whereas the lipid content decreased from 2 to 0.1g/L. Additionally, a higher VFA yield was observed following ultrasonic pre-treatment.
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; Key Laboratory for Solid Waste Management and Environment Safety, Ministry of Education of China, China; Collaborative Innovation Center for Regional Environmental Quality, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. Electronic address: jianguoj@tsinghua.edu.cn.
Jianguo
J
Jiang
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Changxiu
C
Gong
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Jiaming
J
Wang
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Sicong
S
Tian
School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Yujing
Y
Zhang
D000693:Anaerobiosis; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D005232:Fatty Acids, Volatile / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D005285:Fermentation; D005502:Food; D006868:Hydrolysis; D012037:Refuse Disposal / Q000379:methods*; D013016:Sound; D014866:Waste Products / Q000032:analysis*
D005232:Fatty Acids, Volatile; D014866:Waste Products
Food waste; SCOD; Ultrasound; VFAs