Improving the sustainability of organic waste management practices in the food-energy-water nexus: A comparative review of anaerobic digestion and composting

Long Lin, Fuqing Xu, Xumeng Ge and Yebo Li

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2018, vol. 89, issue C, 151-167

Abstract: With global population growth, the security of food, energy and water is becoming more challenging. Both anaerobic digestion (AD) and composting are waste management methods that are plausible approaches to address this challenge by reusing organic waste and generating value-added products. In this paper, recent research on AD and composting is summarized, and differences in the technical, economic, and environmental aspects of AD and composting, and their potential to improve the sustainability of waste management, are examined. Recent research on AD has focused on process enhancement and valorization of end products, while composting research has emphasized ways to shorten composting period and reduce odor and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Strategies to enhance AD and composting processes are similar, but the operational parameters that affect microbial activity, including inoculation, aeration, temperature, moisture, C/N ratio, and pH, can differ. AD can be economically more advantageous than composting, depending on plant scale and valorization of end products, while composting is more profitable at smaller scales (e.g. < 20,000 t). Therefore, AD may be favored for centralized treatment, such as for food waste or sewage sludge; whereas, composting may be preferred for decentralized treatment, such as for on-farm animal manure. Environmentally, AD is favorable in terms of lower GHG emissions due to production of biogas as a renewable energy source. In composting, no single aeration scheme or additive has been found to be effective in reducing odor and GHG emissions simultaneously. Further research on AD and composting should be conducted to improve precision control and optimization, process design, product value, pollution control, and economic and environmental analyses, and more information needs to be provided to decision makers.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Composting; Food-energy-water nexus; Biogas; Waste management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032118301023
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:89:y:2018:i:c:p:151-167

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.2018.03.025

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 ().