Study of food waste degradation in a simulated septic tank

Hongjian Lin; Yuchuan Wang; Leif van Lierop; Carlos Zamalloa; Casey Furlong; Michael Keleman; Bo Hu

doi:10.1177/0734242X19879221

Study of food waste degradation in a simulated septic tank

Hongjian Lin, Yuchuan Wang, Leif van Lierop, Carlos Zamalloa, Casey Furlong, Michael Keleman, Bo Hu

Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Scopus citations

Abstract

Septic systems are typically designed to treat domestic wastewater from households without access to centralized facilities. The installation of a food waste disposer (FWD) may increase the discharge of food waste (FW) into the wastewater; therefore, the installation of a FWD is discouraged in households that have a septic system. This study was conducted to determine how a typical dose of FW from a FWD can affect the performance of a septic system in terms of sewage treatment and solids accumulation. A 20-L control tank was compared with an experiment tank to which FW was added, increasing the amount of total suspended solids (TSS) by 31.3% and total chemical oxygen demands by 46.3% for a period of 110 days. Although the influent water quality changed dramatically, the effluent from the experiment tank had a substantially lower percentage increase in water quality parameters compared with the effluent from the control. It was found that in the experiment tank, 75.8% of FW TSS was degraded, whereas only 36.7% of sewage TSS was degraded, and that 18.8% of FW TSS and 44.9% of sewage TSS accumulated in the experiment tank. The addition of FW increased the scum accumulation, even though the dry matter of the scum layer was much less in quantity than the sludge layer. It also increased the lipid content in the sludge. The increase in the scum layer was mainly due to the increase in protein from the addition of the FW. Overall, compared with sewage TSS, FW TSS tends to be more biodegradable, which indicates that the impact on pumping frequency from adding FW will be insignificant.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	1199-1206
Number of pages	8
Journal	Waste Management and Research
Volume	37
Issue number	12
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242X19879221
State	Published - Dec 1 2019

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1368-5120 Lin Hongjian 1 2 Wang Yuchuan 1 van Lierop Leif 1 Zamalloa Carlos 1 Furlong Casey 3 Keleman Michael 3 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9786-3336 Hu Bo 1 1 Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, USA 2 College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, China 3 Emerson, USA Bo Hu, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Avenue, BAE Building, St. Paul, MN 55108-6005, USA. Email: bhu@umn.edu 10 2019 0734242X19879221 4 6 2019 6 9 2019 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 International Solid Waste Association Septic systems are typically designed to treat domestic wastewater from households without access to centralized facilities. The installation of a food waste disposer (FWD) may increase the discharge of food waste (FW) into the wastewater; therefore, the installation of a FWD is discouraged in households that have a septic system. This study was conducted to determine how a typical dose of FW from a FWD can affect the performance of a septic system in terms of sewage treatment and solids accumulation. A 20-L control tank was compared with an experiment tank to which FW was added, increasing the amount of total suspended solids (TSS) by 31.3% and total chemical oxygen demands by 46.3% for a period of 110 days. Although the influent water quality changed dramatically, the effluent from the experiment tank had a substantially lower percentage increase in water quality parameters compared with the effluent from the control. It was found that in the experiment tank, 75.8% of FW TSS was degraded, whereas only 36.7% of sewage TSS was degraded, and that 18.8% of FW TSS and 44.9% of sewage TSS accumulated in the experiment tank. The addition of FW increased the scum accumulation, even though the dry matter of the scum layer was much less in quantity than the sludge layer. It also increased the lipid content in the sludge. The increase in the scum layer was mainly due to the increase in protein from the addition of the FW. Overall, compared with sewage TSS, FW TSS tends to be more biodegradable, which indicates that the impact on pumping frequency from adding FW will be insignificant. Food waste septic tank household wastewater food waste disposer sludge degradation Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions edited-state corrected-proof Declaration of conflicting interests The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions. ORCID iDs Hongjian Lin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1368-5120 Bo Hu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9786-3336

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.

Keywords

Food waste
degradation
food waste disposer
household wastewater
septic tank
sludge

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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title = "Study of food waste degradation in a simulated septic tank",

abstract = "Septic systems are typically designed to treat domestic wastewater from households without access to centralized facilities. The installation of a food waste disposer (FWD) may increase the discharge of food waste (FW) into the wastewater; therefore, the installation of a FWD is discouraged in households that have a septic system. This study was conducted to determine how a typical dose of FW from a FWD can affect the performance of a septic system in terms of sewage treatment and solids accumulation. A 20-L control tank was compared with an experiment tank to which FW was added, increasing the amount of total suspended solids (TSS) by 31.3% and total chemical oxygen demands by 46.3% for a period of 110 days. Although the influent water quality changed dramatically, the effluent from the experiment tank had a substantially lower percentage increase in water quality parameters compared with the effluent from the control. It was found that in the experiment tank, 75.8% of FW TSS was degraded, whereas only 36.7% of sewage TSS was degraded, and that 18.8% of FW TSS and 44.9% of sewage TSS accumulated in the experiment tank. The addition of FW increased the scum accumulation, even though the dry matter of the scum layer was much less in quantity than the sludge layer. It also increased the lipid content in the sludge. The increase in the scum layer was mainly due to the increase in protein from the addition of the FW. Overall, compared with sewage TSS, FW TSS tends to be more biodegradable, which indicates that the impact on pumping frequency from adding FW will be insignificant.",

keywords = "Food waste, degradation, food waste disposer, household wastewater, septic tank, sludge",

author = "Hongjian Lin and Yuchuan Wang and {van Lierop}, Leif and Carlos Zamalloa and Casey Furlong and Michael Keleman and Bo Hu",

note = "Funding Information: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1368-5120 Lin Hongjian 1 2 Wang Yuchuan 1 van Lierop Leif 1 Zamalloa Carlos 1 Furlong Casey 3 Keleman Michael 3 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9786-3336 Hu Bo 1 1 Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, USA 2 College of Biosystems Engineering and Food Science, Zhejiang University, China 3 Emerson, USA Bo Hu, Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Avenue, BAE Building, St. Paul, MN 55108-6005, USA. Email: bhu@umn.edu 10 2019 0734242X19879221 4 6 2019 6 9 2019 {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2019 2019 International Solid Waste Association Septic systems are typically designed to treat domestic wastewater from households without access to centralized facilities. The installation of a food waste disposer (FWD) may increase the discharge of food waste (FW) into the wastewater; therefore, the installation of a FWD is discouraged in households that have a septic system. This study was conducted to determine how a typical dose of FW from a FWD can affect the performance of a septic system in terms of sewage treatment and solids accumulation. A 20-L control tank was compared with an experiment tank to which FW was added, increasing the amount of total suspended solids (TSS) by 31.3% and total chemical oxygen demands by 46.3% for a period of 110 days. Although the influent water quality changed dramatically, the effluent from the experiment tank had a substantially lower percentage increase in water quality parameters compared with the effluent from the control. It was found that in the experiment tank, 75.8% of FW TSS was degraded, whereas only 36.7% of sewage TSS was degraded, and that 18.8% of FW TSS and 44.9% of sewage TSS accumulated in the experiment tank. The addition of FW increased the scum accumulation, even though the dry matter of the scum layer was much less in quantity than the sludge layer. It also increased the lipid content in the sludge. The increase in the scum layer was mainly due to the increase in protein from the addition of the FW. Overall, compared with sewage TSS, FW TSS tends to be more biodegradable, which indicates that the impact on pumping frequency from adding FW will be insignificant. Food waste septic tank household wastewater food waste disposer sludge degradation Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions edited-state corrected-proof Declaration of conflicting interests The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was funded by Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions. ORCID iDs Hongjian Lin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1368-5120 Bo Hu https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9786-3336 Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2019.",

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AU - Hu, Bo

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Study of food waste degradation in a simulated septic tank

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

UN SDGs

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