Press-extrusion pretreatment of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste for enhanced methane production
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Press‑extrusion pretreatment of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste for enhanced methane production Alessandra Cesaro1 · Valentina Cieri2 · Vincenzo Belgiorno2 Received: 20 February 2020 / Accepted: 30 August 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a well-established process for the treatment of a wide variety of solid organic substrates, including the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW). At industrial scale, the mechanical pretreatment is a fundamental step to reduce OFMSW particle size and to promote the hydrolysis within the subsequent AD process. Among the mechanical pretreatment technologies, press-extrusion has recently raised great interest for its possible application to either enhance the organic load to the digester or improve the overall process stability and methane yields. Aim of this study was in assessing the potential of the press-extrusion pretreatment to improve the performance of OFMSW anaerobic degradation. Batch tests were set up according to a full factorial design of experiments to assess the significance of the main operating parameters. The statistical analysis of results addressed further tests, carried out under semi-continuous feeding mode, to better discuss the possible application of press-extrusion for the greatest valorization of OFMSW under anaerobic conditions. Keywords Biogas · Circular economy · Energy · Pretreatment · Recovery · Solid waste
Introduction The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) represents one of the most abundant biomass worldwide. In the European Union, it basically refers to household likebiodegradable waste and its yearly production accounts for approximately 140 Mt [1]. Due to its high moisture content and biodegradability, OFMSW has been traditionally handled via biological processes, including anaerobic digestion (AD). AD consists of complex biological reactions, occurring in series and carried out by different microbial groups. During the process, the organic substrate is converted into intermediate compounds; these are further degraded to generate a gaseous mixture, mainly composed of methane and carbon dioxide, which can be upgraded and destined to energy * Alessandra Cesaro [email protected] 1
Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Napoli Federico II, via Claudio 21, 80125 Naples, Italy
SEED‑Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, via Giovanni Paolo II, 84084 Fisciano, Salerno, Italy
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production [2]. The generation of intermediates makes OFMSW an attractive substrate for the production of different chemicals of industrial interest. In this view, several studies are being directed towards the possible generation of lactic acid [3], biofuels [4], polyhydroxyalkanotes [5] and other value added products pursuing the valorization of OFMSW in a biorefinery context. Industrial AD processes are largely applied to treat OFMSW, with the main aim of producing metha
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