Overview
Food waste is food that is uneaten, wasted, or lost at any step in the process from production to consumption. Per the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) more than 39 million tons of food waste are annually generated globally. Food waste is an inexpensive material that is normally discarded in landfills but has the potential of being converted into an economically feasible fuel source that can be utilized in various sustainable energy conversion processes, such as anaerobic digestion and fermentation.
The current method for the disposal of food waste involves storing the waste at landfills creating problems such as the emission of 4.4 gigatons of greenhouse gas (GHG) each year to consuming nearly 25% of our water supply. To prevent dumping of food into landfills, we propose an innovative process to turn this source of waste into a renewable resource for clean energy. For effective conversion into energy sources, it is vital to have the food waste be as dry as possible and by doing this we can turn this waste item into a valuable product.
The water content in food waste accounts for approximately 70% of the total mass. Removal of the water requires large amounts of energy which are produced from non-renewable sources which contribute towards carbon emissions.
In contrast our proposed processing method, Sustainable Heater and Water-Removal System (SHAWS) will utilize hot exhaust from physical plants to dry our food waste. This process is applicable for facilities that house people, such as school campuses, military installations, and tribal casinos that have physical plants. A macerator will initially grind the food waste to allow for more efficient removal of water. The macerated food waste will be stored where solar dryers will dehydrate excess food waste until it can be further dried in the enclosure of hot exhaust gases. The resulting macerated food waste would next be dried on trays in a dryer heated by the physical plants steam exhaust. The heat of the steam would be used as a heat source in the process of dehydration through the use of a heat exchanger. A compactor will then densify the dried food waste into small cubes which then can be packaged via a conveyor system. The final product, made from pure waste, is now a valuable dried and densified biomass that can be used for renewable fuels.
Our SHAWS process will reduce the use of non-renewable energies and greenhouse gas emissions associated with food waste. Costs associated with logistics and transportation of food waste will be reduced due to the 70% of weight reduction after drying. Our SHAWS process will provide a solution to the prevention, recycling, and disposal of food waste to create a more sustainable and healthy environment.
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