Potential production of struvite from the anaerobic digestion of food waste: analysis in one-phase and two-phase configurations

oleh: Brayan Alexis Parra-Orobio, Andrea Pérez-Vidal, Patricia Torres-Lozada

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: IWA Publishing 2021-08-01

Deskripsi

Anaerobic digestion (AD) of food waste (FW) has been gaining more interest as it has potential for the production of organic amendments with high struvite (NH4MgPO4·6H2O) content, which is a nutrient of great interest in sustainable agriculture. In this study, the influence of AD of FW in one- and two-phase configurations on methane production and the potential for struvite formation using digestate was evaluated. It was found that the two-phase is more efficient as its organic loading rate is 18% higher than that of one-phase configuration. In addition, the two-phase yielded a higher methane content in biogas (>60%) and a higher organic matter transformation in each of the AD stages (>20%); further, the digestate complied with the regulatory requirements for the use of organic amendments, thereby being deemed as a Type-B material with a struvite precipitation potential, exceeding 80%, as opposed to the digestate from one-phase configuration, which may represent a revenue of up to US$ 26,505 per year. HIGHLIGHTS Two-phase anaerobic digestion of food waste (AD-FW) is an alternative for the generation of struvite.; The presence of struvite helps the sanitization of the digestate obtained in the AD-FW.; Two-phase AD has potential for the treatment as well as energy and agricultural use of FW in small communities.;