Food Waste Research

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/21/sainsburys-store-powered-food-waste

A Sainsbury’s store in the West Midlands will be the first retail outlet in the UK to come off the National Grid and be powered by food waste alone in a groundbreaking project being unveiled on Monday.

Sainsbury’s and waste recycling company Biffa have been working on new technology to allow the Cannock store to run on electricity solely generated from anaerobic digestion.

Sainsbury’s is already the UK’s largest retail user of anaerobic digestion, generating enough electricity to power 2,500 homes each year. Food waste from the chain’s supermarkets around the UK is delivered by lorry to Biffa’s plant in Cannock, and turned into bio-methane gas which is then used to generate electricity that is directly supplied to the supermarket via a newly constructed 1.5km-long electricity cable.

Sainsbury’s says all general waste from stores is recycled or turned into fuel. Surplus food that cannot be used by its charity partners to feed vulnerable people via food banks and other initiatives is processed into animal feed for farmers or used to generate energy through anaerobic digestion. Waste bananas from its Prescot Road store in Liverpool go to Knowsley safari park to feed the monkeys.

Paul Crewe, head of sustainability at Sainsbury’s, said: “We send absolutely no waste to landfill and are always looking for new ways to reuse and recycle. So we’re delighted to be the first business ever to make use of this linkup technology, allowing our Cannock store to be powered entirely by our food waste.”

http://www.epa.gov/region9/waste/features/foodtoenergy/index.html

Fall Semester 2014 starts!!

Mathematical Modeling of Food Waste Generation and Urban Ecology in NYC

Mass Balance

A mass balance, also called a material balance, is an application of conservation of mass to the analysis of physical systems. By accounting for material entering and leaving a system, mass flows can be identified which might have been unknown, or difficult to measure without this technique. The exact conservation law used in the analysis of the system depends on the context of the problem, but all revolve around mass conservation, i.e. that matter cannot disappear or be created spontaneously.[1]:59-62

via Mass balance – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Rate equation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The rate law or rate equation for a chemical reaction is an equation that links the reaction rate with concentrations or pressures of reactants and constant parameters (normally rate coefficients and partial reaction orders).[1] To determine the rate equation for a particular system one combines the reaction rate with a mass balance for the system.[2]

via Rate equation – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Summary of Decomposition Rate literature review

Related articles from science direct :

MODELING OF VOLATILE FATTY ACIDS DEGRADATION KINETICS AND EVALUATION OF MICROORGANISM ACTIVITY

High-rate slurry-phase decomposition of food wastes: indirect performance estimation from dissolved oxygen

Treatment of food wastes using slurry-phase decomposition

Food waste decomposition in leachbed reactor: Role of neutralizing solutions on the leachate quality

Anaerobic digestion of food waste: Comparing leachate exchange rates in sequential batch systems digesting food waste and biosolids

Nitrogen conservation and acidity control during food wastes composting through struvite formation

Today’s to do list:

Literature review for Decomposition Rate of food waste on the street. Let’s go to sciencedirect and check papers on food decomposition rate (fruits, dog food, vegetables).

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Notes:

+ Open environment (trash cans, bins): it’s easy to see moisture evaporation and more mass reduction.

+ Closed environment (closed black bags): it’s decomposition rate is higher than open. but mass reduction should be less.

Food_Waste_Model