Tuesday, April 20, 2010
10-23

Enzymatic liquefaction of household waste

Jacob W. Jensen, Claus Felby, and Henning Jørgensen. Forest and Landscape, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, Frb. C., Denmark

Biomass is a key component in the future renewable energy sector. The level of bioenergy will depend on the amount of available biomass. One of the least exploited biomass resources is municipal solid waste (MSW) produced in an annual quantity of 2.6 million tons in EU27 (Eurostat, 2008). Typical MSW fractions are paper/card, kitchen waste, garden waste, textiles, metals, plastics, and miscellaneous (combustibles and others). Sorting of solid and organic MSW, without losing degradable material is needed for proper feeding of degradable fractions to an e.g. biogas process. A process for sorting and proper utilization of MSW has been developed in Denmark and recently scaled up to pilot plant scale processing 800 kg/hr. The input is unsorted household waste, which is thermal treated and secondly the biomass fraction is enzymatic liquefied, which turns this fraction into a pumpable slurry and ease the sorting of non-biomass substances.

The enzymatic processing is a key component and the most expensive part of the process. Because of possible high metal ion content in the heterogeneous MSW material compared to agricultural crop residue, the metal ion content and the effect of chelating agents (EDTA) on that, as well as on the enzyme action, were studied. In addition, the optimizing effect of using surfactants on enzyme activity and liquefaction, found in the second-generation biofuel processes, were studied on MSW material.


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