Degradation characteristics of food waste by anaerobic hydrogen production fermentation

摘要

The degradation of food waste by anaerobic hydrogen production fermentation was investigated using batch experiments at 37°C. Four varieties of typical individual components of food waste including rice, lettuce, lean meat and peanut oil were selected to estimate the hydrogen production potential and degradation degree. Experimental results showed that among the components of food waste, carbohydrates are the most optimal substrate for fermentative hydrogen production compared with proteins and lipids. The degradation based on COD for rice, lettuce, lean meat and peanut oil were 98.53%, 25.14％, 16.24% and 8.18% respectively. The degraded COD were mainly converted to liquid intermediate metabolites (such as acetate, butyrate and propionate). The hydrogen production potentials for rice, lettuce, lean meat and peanut oil were 134, 50, 0 and 6 mL/g-VS. The hydrogen percentages of the total gas produced from rice and lettuce were 57-70% and 37-67%. Subsequently, degradation characteristics for carbohydrates, proteins and lipid under the anaerobic condition were expatiated in biochemical view. The biochemical mechanism is in line with the experimental results.