| dc.description.abstract | Uncooked food waste is primarily composed of raw fruits and vegetables rich in lignocellulose. This structure can effectively resist pests and diseases in the natural environment, but it can also reduce its potential for biodegradation during anaerobic digestion. The objectives of this study are (i) to examine whether lignin in uncooked food waste can be effectively destroyed by the ionic liquid [Bmim]Cl resulting in enhanced methane production in a subsequent anaerobic digestion process, and (ii) to assess whether the ionic liquid [Bmim]Cl can be recycled and reused. Results of lignocellulose analysis show that the lignin content in the uncooked food waste samples was generally less than 10%, which is a bit lower than the biomass used for ionic liquids pretreatment in the literature. After ionic liquid pretreatment, the weight of uncooked food waste was lost by about 50%, presumably due to the higher hydrolysis nature of the sample resulting in excessive mass quantity loss during the pretreatment. [Bmim]Cl was recovered in the pretreatment solvent using an aqueous biphasic system, and as the repeat number of [Bmim]Cl recovery and reuse increased, it is observed that the recovery rates decreased, but the lignin dissolution rate and uncooked food waste mass loss rate did not exhibit a distinct pattern. Lignin dissolution was observed for most of the uncooked food waste samples after pretreatment with [Bmim]Cl, except for the third-time [Bmim]Cl pretreatment on the first batch of the collected uncooked food waste samples. Comparing the anaerobic digestion of pretreated and untreated samples, it was found that differences in the cumulative methane production were not significant (p < 0.05 by ANOVA analysis). This might be attributed to the low lignin content of food waste samples that led to similar methane production even without pretreatment. According to the pretreatment experiment, it can be seen that the weight of uncooked food waste will be greatly lost after ionic liquid pretreatment. It is speculated that [Bmim]Cl and potassium phosphate aqueous solution have the potential of anaerobic digestion to produce methane after pretreatment, and combined with COD analysis to determine the dissolved uncooked food waste distribution through the aqueous biphasic systems. The results showed that the two pretreated and recovered solutions could not increase the methane production. The main reason for the research was that the above experiment was not realtime analysis, which caused the two solvents to be used for a long time and the organic matter was consumed.
The results of this study show that pretreatment of uncooked food waste with [Bmim]Cl does not increase the production of anaerobic methane production. However, there are many types of ionic liquids, so continuous testing can be used to find the most efficient and economical method for improving methane production. species. The potassium phosphate solution obtained after pretreatment with [Bmim]Cl and recovery can not be completely ruled out and has no potential for methanogenesis. If this information can be fully grasped, it may be possible to further analyze when the ionic liquid lost pre-treatment capacity and the recovered potassium phosphate solution can be converted into anaerobic digestion of the feed. | en_US |