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Spatial and temporal variability of odorous VOC in a food waste treatment plant using hydrothermal hydrolysis and aerobic fermentation technology

  • SPECIAL FEATURE: ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • The 9th International Conference on Waste Management and Technology, 9th ICWMT 2014
  • Published:
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Abstract

Offensive odorant emissions from a food waste (FW) treatment plant that uses hydrothermal hydrolysis and aerobic fermentation technology were studied for 1 month through in situ monitoring and laboratory testing. Results showed that the emission flux (7000 μg kg−1FW h−1) of total volatile organic compounds and concentrations of most volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were highest at the discharge outlet of the hydrothermal hydrolysis reactor. Furthermore, VOC composition analysis showed that the concentrations of most hydrocarbons detected during the sorting/crushing process were higher than those in the aerobic fermentation process, but more oxygenated organic compounds and pinenes were released in the aerobic treatment process. The analysis of VOC temporal characteristics via t test indicated that even with various FW loads during the day and night, most VOC concentrations sampled in the storing room were not significantly different. However, great variances among most VOC concentrations were observed during the sorting/crushing process and at the hydrothermal hydrolysis reactor. The annoyance degrees of offensive gases were also determined via analysis of odor indices. The results suggested that sulfocompounds mainly dominated in terms of high odor activate values during the sorting/crushing process, and the fractional content of oxygenated organic compounds increased in the aerobic treatment processes.

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Acknowledgments

The project is supported by the Environmental Protection Public Welfare Project (grant number 201109035).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Solid Waste Management and Environment Safety, Ministry of Education of China, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Xin Kong, Jianguo Liu, Mingying Song, Xiaowei Wang, Zhe Ni & Xiaoqin Nie

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  1. Xin Kong
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  2. Jianguo Liu
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  3. Mingying Song
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  4. Xiaowei Wang
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  5. Zhe Ni
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  6. Xiaoqin Nie
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Correspondence to Jianguo Liu.

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Kong, X., Liu, J., Song, M. et al. Spatial and temporal variability of odorous VOC in a food waste treatment plant using hydrothermal hydrolysis and aerobic fermentation technology. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 17, 626–636 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-015-0407-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-015-0407-6

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