title: Co-management of domestic wastewater and food waste: A life cycle comparison of alternative food waste diversion strategies.
abstract: Food waste is increasingly viewed as a resource that should be diverted from landfills. This study used life cycle assessment to compare co-management of food waste and domestic wastewater using anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) against conventional activated sludge (CAS) and high rate activated sludge (HRAS) with three disposal options for food waste: landfilling (LF), anaerobic digestion (AD), and composting (CP). Based on the net energy balance (NEB), AnMBR and HRAS/AD were the most attractive scenarios due to cogeneration of produced biogas. However, cogeneration negatively impacted carcinogenics, non-carcinogenics, and ozone depletion, illustrating unavoidable tradeoffs between energy recovery from biogas and environmental impacts. Fugitive emissions of methane severely increased global warming impacts of all scenarios except HRAS/AD with AnMBR particularly affected by effluent dissolved methane emissions. AnMBR was also most sensitive to food waste diversion participation, with 40% diversion necessary to achieve a positive NEB at the current state of development.
authors: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California, 3620 S Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089, United States.
authors: Adilson M
authors: AM
authors: Becker
authors: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California, 3620 S Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089, United States.
authors: Kevin
authors: K
authors: Yu
authors: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, TX 77005, United States.
authors: Lauren B
authors: LB
authors: Stadler
authors: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Southern California, 3620 S Vermont Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90089, United States. Electronic address: smithada@usc.edu.
authors: Adam L
authors: AL
authors: Smith
mesh_terms: D001674:Bioelectric Energy Sources; D056804:Biofuels; D019149:Bioreactors; D004777:Environment; D005502:Food; D057232:Global Warming; D008697:Methane; D012722:Sewage; D012987:Soil; D064091:Waste Disposal Facilities; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods*; D062065:Wastewater
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D008697:Methane; D012722:Sewage; D012987:Soil; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Anaerobic membrane bioreactor; Domestic wastewater; Food waste; High rate activated sludge; Life cycle assessment