Improving slaughterhouse byproducts utilization via anaerobic digestion, composting, and rendering

Shunli Wang, Zehui Wei and Lili Wang

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2024, vol. 189, issue PA

Abstract: A large number of high-strength byproducts/wastes are discharged from slaughterhouses of meat industry in China and could pose serious environment pollution if without proper treatments. These wastes are rich in protein and lipid, and could potentially be utilized for effective recovery of energy and nutrients. In this study, three treatment scenarios of slaughterhouse wastes, namely anaerobic digestion (AD), composting, and rendering, were firstly investigated in China, and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were calculated and compared. The results indicated that 23.1 Tg of slaughterhouse byproduct (SBP) and 679.7 Mm3 of wastewaters were estimated to discharge in 2020, which can potentially produce 2743 Mm3 of biomethane in AD, 316 Gg of nitrogen and 660 Gg of phosphorus nutrients in composting, or 5.4 Tg of rendering products in rendering. AD of SBP resulted in high GHG reductions (approximately 17.88 Tg of CO2-eq). The net energy produced from a typical pig slaughterhouse through treating SBP by the AD system was also estimated to be 194.7 GJ/d and GHG reduction was 100.3 Mg of CO2-eq/d. Technical challenges (include digester inhibition, odor emissions, and biosafety) were also summarized and discussed for practicing these technologies. Therefore, integrating the bioenergy/byproducts production to animal processing can potentially enhance the environmental sustainability of meat industry in China in the future.

Keywords: Slaughterhouse waste; Biomethane; Composting; Rendering; Greenhouse gases reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032123007396
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:189:y:2024:i:pa:s1364032123007396

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2023.113881

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().