Anaerobic Co-digestion of Sewage Sludge and Food Wastes
UMass Research Team: Chul Park, Meng Wang, Eom Heonseop, Camilla Kuo-Dahab
Interest in anaerobic digestion has increased in recent years because of its ability to remove organic matter without aeration, which requires extensive use of energy, and to recover bioenergy from wastes in the form of methane. Not only waste sludge but various organic wastes, such as food waste, have been considered as substrates for anaerobic digestion. However, the feasibility of anaerobic digestion on various organic materials has not been studied in depth and the effect of organic waste co-digestion on the characteristics of digestion product, such as dewatering rates and pathogen inactivation, is not well known.
The current project "anaerobic co-digestion of food wastes and sewage sludge" is sponsored by Massachusetts Water Resources Authority: the project was subcontracted through FST, an Environmental Engineering Consulting Firm. The objective of current project is to investigate the anaerobic co-digestion of sewage sludge from Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant (DITP) and food waste from Waste Management. The project employs series of mesophilic (37C) anaerobic digestion on combination of sludge and food waste in different mass composition. The project team also conducts characterization study on food waste to understand the properties of food waste as a feed to anaerobic digestion. The research team will use both batch and semi-continuous anaerobic digestion and will study the effect of co-digestion on biogas production, organic matter removal, and dewatering rate of the digestion product. The results from the current project will assist DITP in determining the food waste co-digestion scheme at the facility.
Background Information on Co-digestion: EPA Site
Related UMass Research Projects:
- Activated Sludge with a Side-Stream Treatment (Chul Park)