Lee MK  Kim K  Shin HG  Bae KH  Kim CG  Park JS

Vol. 25,  No. 3, pp. 223-230, Sep.  2019
10.7464/ksct.2019.25.3.223

Food waste Methane BMP test Methane production yield Chemical composition

PDF

This research was performed to evaluate the characteristics of food waste from 5 areas in Gangwon Province, Korea and to predict the CH4 gas production rate. Food wastes were sampled in July and September, 2017. The amount of methane gas generation was evaluated through the biochemical methane potential (BMP) test and a calculation method using chemical composition. Average bulk density and pH of the food wastes were in the range of 0.758 ~ 0.850 g cm-3 and 4.29 ~ 4.75, respectively. By physical composition, vegetables were the highest with 56.43 ~ 72.81% with fruits recording 5.31 ~ 8.95%, cereals 1.60 ~ 18.73%, fish and meat 4.47 ~ 12.11%, and filtrate 1.76 ~ 3.64%. The average water content was 69.30 ~ 75.87%, and VS and ash content were 22.50 ~ 27.98% and 1.63 ~ 2.48%, respectively. In addition, BOD5, CODCr, and CODMn were in the ranges of 17,690.3 ~ 33,154.9 mg L-1, 106,212.3 ~ 128,695.5 mg L-1, and 51,266.1 ~ 63,426.3 mg L-1, respectively. The NaCl content ranged from 0.81 to 1.17%. The results of elemental analysis showed that the contents of C, H, O, N, and S were 44.87 ~ 48.1%, 7.12 ~ 7.57%, 40.13 ~ 43.78%, 3.22 ~ 4.14%, and 0.00 ~ 0.02%, respectively. In a comparison of the methane production yield per VS mass of food waste, there was no significant difference between the cumulative amount (0.303 ~ 0.354 mCH4 3 kgVS -1) by the BMP test and the theoretical amount (0.294 ~ 0.352 mCH4 3 kgVS -1) calculated by chemical composition.