An Economic and Environmental Comparison Approach for Food Waste-to-Energy Technologies

摘要

The US disposes of more than 34 million tons of food waste in landfills per year. As thisfood waste decomposes it generates methane gas and negatively contributes to global warming.This paper compares four different configurations of anaerobic digestion of organic waste toenergy technologies from an economic, energy, and emissions standpoint using LCA via a casestudy at a large food services provider in Northwest Ohio, USA. Using LCA, these scenarioswere compared to landfill disposal of the food waste. The findings from the case study indicatedthat implementing on-site waste to energy systems will result in lower operation costs and lowerenvironmental impacts.