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Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 307 312

The 6th International Conference on Applied Energy ICAE2014

Food waste to bioenergy via anaerobic processes

Thi Ngoc Bao Dunga, Biswarup Sena,b,c, Chin-Chao Chend,
Gopalakrishnan Kumare, Chiu-Yue Lina,b,c
a

Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724 Taiwan
b

c
d

Green Energy Development Centre, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724 Taiwan

Masters Program of Green Energy Science and Technology, Feng Chia University, Taichung 40724 Taiwan

Department of Landscape Architecture, ChungChou University of Science and Technology, Changhua County 510, Taiwan
e

Department of Environmental Engineering, Daegu University, Gyeongsan, Gyeongbuk 712-714, Republic of Korea

Abstract
The value of food waste has not been paid much attention due to the lack of application policies and suitable
management laws. In this paper the food waste management in the prospect of bioenergy production and the future
directions has been reviewed. The official data in relation to food waste generation and current status of food waste
management were collected from 21 countries. The bioenergy production potential of food wastes from these
countries has been calculated by applying five different innovative methods of bioenergy production. The bioenergy
potential based on anaerobic digestion for bio-methane (Method I), two-phase process for bio-hythane (Method II),
three-stage fermentation for bio-methane (Method III), two-step process of dark-fermentation and photo-fermentation
for bio-hydrogen (Method IV), and three-stage fermentation for bio-hythane (Method V) were about 379,796
KWh/year, 102,137 KWh/year, 76,743 KWh/year, 833,555 KWh/year and 141,739 KWh/year, respectively. By
evaluating the bioenergy potential of these anaerobic processes, the appropriate strategy and related management
policy were suggested. Besides, this study provides a hierarchical vision for food waste management which would
lead towards the sustainable development.
by Elsevier
Ltd. This
is an openLtd.
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
2014
2014Published
The Authors.
Published
by Elsevier
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

Selection
peer-review of
under
responsibility
of ICAE
under responsibility
the Organizing
Committee
of ICAE2014
Peer-reviewand/or
Keywords: Bioenergy; Bio-hythane; Bio-hydrogen; Bio-methane; Anaerobic process; Food waste management

1876-6102 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of ICAE2014
doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2014.11.1113

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Thi Ngoc Bao Dung et al. / Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 307 312

Nomenclature
5Rs
AD
BTU
FW
GDP
GWh

Reduction Reuse Recycle Recover Refinery

Anaerobic Digestion
British Thermal Unit
Food Waste
Gross Domestic Product
Gigawatt-hour

1. Introduction
The rapid development of industries for economic growth of countries has contributed more threats
to the global environment by the ways of air pollution, water pollution and deforestation. Many efforts
have been made to find effective methods and low-cost alternatives to solve these current environmental
issues. As a part of research in renewable resources, food waste (FW) is considered as a feasible raw
material that could be converted to bioenergy and bio-materials [1]. In recent years, FW generally ends up
in the landfill which is the less prospective option. And as a result, this is becoming a serious issue. The
main component of FW is organic material which is easy to transform into contaminants, causing serious
effects on the surrounding environment. Moreover, FW landfill is proven as a key factor contributing to
global climate change. The disposal of FW in landfill emits a large volume of methane and carbon
dioxide. The landfill biogas largely made up of methane of about 4070% by dry volume has warming
effect stronger than carbon dioxide by about 2025 times [2]. Therefore, practicing landfill as a disposal
solution for the treatment of FW will lead to further global warming. This study aims to collect and
calculate the potential of several food waste treatment methods using anaerobic processes in terms of
bioenergy conversion, which further gives a bioenergy potential prediction from FW for 21 countries.
Moreover, this study explains further suitable methods, which may have commercial application in
developed countries, developing and under development countries.
2. Potential of food waste for bioenergy production
In literature, FW generation increased over time in relation to the food consumption and correlated
with GDP per capita [3]. Table 1 summarizes the current data of FW generation in 21 countries based on
per capita GDP index. Canada had the highest FW generation rate with 0.5 kg FW/capita/day [4],
followed by the United States with 0.3 kg FW/capita/day (110 kg FW/capita/year) [5]. The highest
generation of FW in European countries has been noted in England with a total FW amount of 14.257
million tons annually. Germany generates about 12.258 million tons/year [6]. According to the data
analysis from Table 1, the average FW production rate per capita of developed countries is 107 kg
FW/capita/year. The developed countries generate a huge quantity of FW which is derived from food
manufacturers and wholesalers due to the consumers requirement of both quality and quantity.
Moreover, consumers in developed countries generally purchase more food than their actual use due to
the lack of proper plan in their food management. Developing countries, such as China and India are the
major contributors of FW generation in the world because of huge population, improper management, as
well as inadequate harvest techniques, poor post-harvest management, and lack of suitable infrastructure,
processing and packaging, and low quality marketing information. The inadequate awareness of FW
management and environmental protection education is also a major contribution of FW generation in
developing countries. For example, in Viet Nam and Thailand, FW is conventionally mixed into
municipal solid waste and treated via landfill [7], which not only causes serious pollution but also wastes
a large amount of renewable resources which can be converted into bioenergy. Based on Table 1, the
average FW production rate per capita in developing countries is 56 kg FW/capita/year.

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Thi Ngoc Bao Dung et al. / Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 307 312

Altogether, Table 1 shows the prediction of potential bioenergy productions from FW of 21 countries
by using five different methods. The evaluation of five currently available methods of bioenergy
production (Method I-V) can further help to propose the most suitable method for application in making
FW management policies or energy policies. From environmental viewpoint, anaerobic processes are
encouraged to treat FW, because of low-carbon emission and limited pollution. These methods were
based on anaerobic processes to calculate the FW bioenergy potential. In the United States, for each year
2,030 160 trillion BTU (around 24,789 GWh) of energy were embedded in 2007, contributing 2% of
the national annual energy consumption [8]. According to Table 1, the potential energy in 2012 for the
U.S. could be 51,525 GWh. It means that if all FW in the U.S. was treated by Method I, the generated
power could equal 10 million households annual electricity consumption. Especially, if the U.S. applied
Method IV, the highest bioenergy amount (113,915 GWh) could be achieved, which ought to be enough
to meet the annual energy demand for more than 20 million families. Similarly, Japan generates about 23
million tons of FW per year and its equivalent electricity could meet the energy demand of around 115
million Japanese families. As other examples, assuming that all FW in Australia is treated by bioconversion (aerobic composting combines AD), they could generate around 1,915 GWh/year, and meet
the energy demand up to 3.5% of total renewable energy sources [9]. In Germany, a biogas yield of 200
m3/ton-FW might substitute approximately 1% of the electricity consumption [10]. According to Table 1,
China, the U.S and India are the top three countries having the highest potential of bioenergy from FW.
However, a large amount of FW is treated by landfill or composting, due to the need of larger amount of
capital investment, technological experience, and operating costs for bioenergy based FW management.
Table 1. Prediction of bioenergy potential of food waste for 21 countries
Average References Bioenergy
Country#
Total FWa
FW
potential by
(tons/year) generation FW rate
Method Ib
per capita per capita
(kg/day) (kg/year)
(GWh/year)
Developed countries
Australia
2,261,061
Denmark
790,502
Sweden
1,915,460
Canada
26,281,500
Netherland
8,841,307
Ireland
1,000,000
United States
60,849,145
Singapore
570,000
Japan
23,000,000
Germany
12,257,998
England
14,257,000
New Zealand
730,000
Italy
10,496,732
South Korea
6,241,500
Taiwan
2,318,169
Developing countries
Brazil
14,235,000
South Africa
9,040,000
China
195,000,000
Thailand
7,125,200
India
35,000,000
Viet Nam
6,771,200
Total
406,901,261
#:

0.25
0.32
0.27
0.50
0.31
0.21
0.30
0.31
0.25
0.34
0.37
0.17
0.17
0.27
0.23
0.20
0.15
0.15
0.10
0.20
0.08

Bioenergy
potential by
Method IIb
(GWh/year)

Bioenergy
potential by
Method IIIb
(GWh/year)

Bioenergy
potential by
Method IVb
(GWh/year)

Bioenergy
potential by
Method Vb
(GWh/year)

107

[9]
[6, 11]
[6, 12]
[3]
[6, 11]
[13]
[14]
[15]
[16]
[6, 11]
[17]
[18]
[6, 11]
[19]
[15, 20]

1,915
669
1,622
22,254
7,486
847
51,525
483
27,096
10,380
12,701
219
8,888
5,285
1,963

390
136
330
4,530
1,524
172
10,488
98
5,515
2,113
2,585
45
1,809
1,076
400

519
181
439
6,029
2,028
229
13,958
131
7,341
2,812
3,441
59
2,408
1,432
532

4,233
1,480
3,586
49,201
16,552
1,872
113,915
1,067
59,907
22,948
28,081
485
19,651
11,685
4,340

720
252
610
8,366
2,814
318
19,370
181
10,187
3,902
4,775
82
3,341
1,987
738

56

[21]
[22]
[23]
[7, 24]
[25]
[26]

12,054
7,655
165,119
6,033
29,868
5,734
379,796

2,454
1,558
33,610
1,228
5,515
1,167
76,743

3,265
2,074
44,731
1,634
7,341
1,553
102,137

26,649
16,924
365,058
13,339
59,907
12,676
833,555

4,531
2,878
62,075
2,268
10,187
2,155
141,739

GDP per capita by country, World Bank data, 2011-2012.

: Total food waste generation in each country from 2009 to 2013. b:Method I: Anaerobic digestion for bio-methane; Method II:
Two-phase fermentation for bio-hythane; Method III: Three-stage fermentation for bio-methane; Method IV: Two-step process of
dark-fermentation and photo-fermentation for bio-hydrogen; Method V: The three-stage fermentation for bio-hythane.
a

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Thi Ngoc Bao Dung et al. / Energy Procedia 61 (2014) 307 312

3. The way forward for food waste management via bioenergy production
(1) Reduction at source: Reduce means to use things with care to minimize the amount of waste
generated [27]. The simplest way to reduce the cost of FW is not to produce it in the first place, and
prevent producing FW by not over-preparation or over-trimming.
(2) Reuse: Reuse means repeated use of items or parts which still have usable aspects. The economic
way to save money is to store leftover food in refrigerator for reuse or donate unused food to local
charities or hostels for homeless.
(3) Recycle: Recycle means the use of waste itself as the resource. FW can be used as a feedstock of
commercial feed for animal. Besides, FW can be converted to produce bio-fertilizer and biogas.
(4) Recovery: FW recovery is a series of activities where discarded FW are collected, sorted, processed
and converted into other higher value and marketable products [13].
(5) Refinery: Among the multiple final products from FW refinery, bioenergy yields the highest benefit to
economy and environment. The most innovative technology for FW refinery is production of biohydrogen and methane by anaerobic processes [28], and is considered as the most efficient and promising
strategy that can make the way forward for FW management. In future, increasing 5Rs and applying
bioenergy production for FW management can certainly minimize pollution and the consumption of nonrenewable resources, generating the needed bio-fertilizer for agriculture, forestation, distributing
bioenergy to meet the energy demand, and reducing the costs for businesses.
4. Conclusion
This work elucidated that FW is a feasible bioenergy source, which can be further considered for the
real-time application in the aspect of reuse and energy production worldwide. The highest calculated
bioenergy potential from FW via Method IV is approximately 833,555 KWh/year for 21 countries, which
could significant contribute to the national energy demand in future. However, to develop a major
strategy for sustainable FW management system, each country must pay more efforts to promote all
activities associated with the innovative 5Rs concept by laws and proper policies. The efficiencies of 5Rs
could be flexibly applied in relation to the real condition of each country. Finally, FW minimization may
be achieved in an efficient way by following primarily on the integrative vision for FW management
system.
Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support by Taiwans Bureau of Energy (grant no.
102-D0616), Taiwans National Science Council (NSC-99-2632-E-035-001-MY3) and Feng Chia
University (FCU-10G27101).
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Brief biography about the corresponding author

Prof. Chiu-Yue Lin is a Chair Professor of Department of Environmental Engineering and Science and Department of Water
Resource Engineering, Feng Chia University and is currently Director of Green Energy Development Centre, Feng Chia University,
Taiwan. He is also is a Co-Chairman of Asia Bio-HyLinks (ABHL), President of IAHE-Taiwan Chapter, and head of APEC
Research Centre of Advanced Bio-hydrogen. He obtained his PhD degree (Engineering) from Tohoku University, Japanin 1986.
Prof. Lin is specialized in Biological Wastewater Treatment, Anaerobic Digestion, Bio-hydrogen Energy, and Fermentative
Bioenergy Technology. He received The Chinese Institute of Engineers (CIE) Outstanding Engineering Professor Award in 2012.
Over the last 30 years with Feng Chia University, Prof. Lin has successfully developed green energy research field by attracting
research grants in Feng Chia University and has published around 450 peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers.