Ultrasound and microwave pretreatments promote methane production potential and energy conversion during anaerobic digestion of lipid and food wastes

Liangchen Yue, Jun Cheng, Suqin Tang, Xiaoxia An, Junjie Hua, Haiquan Dong and Junhu Zhou

Energy, 2021, vol. 228, issue C

Abstract: To alleviate difficult degradation of lipids and its inhibition on anaerobic digestion of food waste, ultrasound and microwave heating were used to pretreat lipid and food wastes for promoting methane production. The soluble COD (10,130 mg/L) of lipid waste pretreated with ultrasound of 50,000 kJ/kg-total volatile solids (TVS) was higher than that (1910 mg/L) with microwave heating of the same energy input. This was because the thermal and mechanical effects of the ultrasound pretreatment were stronger than the thermal and solid dissolution effects of the microwave heating pretreatment. The methane yield of lipid waste pretreated with ultrasound during anaerobic digestion increased by 43.3%–927.97 mL/g-TVS, higher than that of 738.63 mL/g-TVS with microwave heating. Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) and Scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) analysis demonstrated that the residual lipids were reduced and microorganism coating was relieved after anaerobic digestion of lipid waste pretreated with ultrasound. The energy conversion efficiency of lipid waste pretreated with ultrasound to methane product was 69.89%, which was higher than that of 58.98% with microwave heating. Ultrasound efficiently degraded lipid waste and released more energy to be converted into methane.

Keywords: Food waste; Lipid waste; Methane; Ultrasound pretreatment; Microwave heating; Anaerobic digestion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:228:y:2021:i:c:s036054422100774x

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.120525

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