Distribution of PCDD/Fs in a food waste anaerobic digestion process with biogas utilization

Highlights

● The PCDD/F distribution patterns of the FW-AD process were investigated.

● PCDD/F emission characteristics in biogas utilization exhaust gas were revealed.

● A negative balance of 2.48 μg I-TEQ/t RFW was found for the FW-AD process.

● PCDD/F emissions from China’s FW-AD plants were about 128.21 mg I-TEQ in 2020.

● AD will reduce 12.5%–21.3% of PCDD/F emissions compared to co-incineration.

Abstract

Food waste (FW) is a major component of municipal solid waste (MSW) in developing countries such as China. Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a widely-applied FW biological treatment method following MSW classification. With FW diversion from conventional incineration plants, the environmental risk caused by trace toxic pollutants, such as polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs), should be reevaluated. This study investigated a full-scale FW-AD plant in Shenzhen, China, and addressed two important underexplored issues: the distribution patterns of PCDD/Fs during the FW-AD process and PCDD/F emission characteristics of the biogas utilization exhaust gas. Mass balance demonstrated a negative balance of 2.48 μg I-TEQ/t of raw FW (RFW), thus indicating that AD produced moderate PCDD/F emissions. The detailed findings were as follows: 1) PCDD/F toxic equivalents (TEQs) in pure FW (RFW without impurities) were lower than in RFW, indicating that MSW source separation is crucial for decreasing the PCDD/F input into the AD system; 2) PCDD/F contents (6.20–8.27 pg I-TEQ/g dry weight) in solid digestate were near the screening value of development land in China’s national standard (GB36600-2018), thus indicating that the potential environmental risk from the land application of solid digestate should be considered; and 3) PCDD/F TEQs (0.001–0.022 ng I-TEQ/Nm³) in biogas utilization exhaust gas were roughly equivalent to those produced by MSW incinerators in Shenzhen. This study indicated that compared with co-incineration with other waste, FW-AD will reduce PCDD/F emissions (air) from MSW incineration plants by 12.5%–21.3% at the national level under an FW separation scenario.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Biological treatment / MSW classification / Mass balance / Solid digestate

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2018YFC1902904) and the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (No. WDZC20200817144218001).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-023-1736-7 and is accessible for authorized users.

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