Assessment of Integration between Lactic Acid, Biogas and Hydrochar Production in OFMSW Plants

Lucio Zaccariello, Maria Laura Mastellone, Luisa Ida D’Amelia, Michelina Catauro and Biagio Morrone
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Lucio Zaccariello: Department DISTABIF, Università della Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, 81100 Caserta, Italy
Maria Laura Mastellone: Department DISTABIF, Università della Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, 81100 Caserta, Italy
Luisa Ida D’Amelia: Department of Engineering, Università della Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, 81031 Aversa, Italy
Michelina Catauro: Department of Engineering, Università della Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, 81031 Aversa, Italy
Biagio Morrone: Department of Engineering, Università della Campania “L. Vanvitelli”, 81031 Aversa, Italy

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-19

Abstract: Biological treatments such as anaerobic digestion and composting are known to be the most widespread methods to deal with Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW). The production of biogas, a mix of methane and carbon dioxide, is worth but alone cannot solve the problems of waste disposal and recovery; moreover, the digestate could be stabilized by aerobic stabilization, which is one of the most widespread methods. The anaerobic digestion + composting integration converts 10% to 14% of the OFMSW into biogas, about 35–40% into compost and 35–40% into leachate. The economic sustainability could be rather increased by integrating the whole system with lactic acid production, because of the high added value and by substituting the composting process with the hydrothermal carbonization process. The assessment of this integrated scenario in term of mass balance demonstrates that the recovery of useful products with a potentially high economic added value increases, at the same time reducing the waste streams outgoing the plant. The economic evaluation of the operating costs for the traditional and the alternative systems confirms that the integration is a valid alternative and the most interesting solution is the utilization of the leachate produced during the anaerobic digestion process instead of fresh water required for the hydrothermal carbonization process.

Keywords: biogas; lactic acid; hydrochar; leachate; food waste; anaerobic digestion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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