Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
More than a third of the food produced in the United States goes uneaten, squandering energy, water, and space in landfills while contributing to methane emissions and water pollution from agricultural practices. This waste occurs at every stage of the food chain, from cultivation to consumption by households and the food service industry. Food waste contains five major components i.e., carbohydrates, proteins, extractives, lignin, and lipids. These components are renewable resources to manufacture bioproducts. It can drive circularity by providing an alternative to making, using, and disposing of paradigm and keeping resources in use for as long as possible, extracting maximum value.This project will engineer a robust and scalable processing platform for converting food waste to high surface area carbon which can be used in supercapacitors. The process will apply a geo-mimic hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) method to capture organic carbon containing in food waste in solid form termed as hydrochar. Subsequently, hydrochar will be thermo-chemically activated to high surface area carbon (>1000 m2/g) which will be characterized for its energy storage properties. The wastewater generated during the HTC process will be biologically treated by cultivating marine protist biomass. The treated water can be recycled for conducting HTC process whereas generated biomass from biological treatment will be used for making hydrochar along with food waste.The end goal of the project is to demonstrate an environmentally benign food waste valorization process to high surface area carbon material and a way to reduce the disposal costs of the food waste stream by more than 40% compared to conventional anaerobic digestion.A combination of experimental and modelling approach will be adopted for optimizing the proposed food waste valorization process. The process parameters will be used for developing techno-economic model to understand the economic viability of the proposed process in comparison to existing food waste valorization methods. The life cycle assessment analyses will inform the greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts of the project. The scientific outcomes from this project will be disseminated to scientific audiences through peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations/posters. Whereas outreach activities including workshops and community engagements will help educating local communities, pre-college students, and industry stakeholders.
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
20%
Applied
50%
Developmental
30%
Goals / Objectives
The major goal of the project is to develop a robust and scalable processing platform for converting food waste to a marketable product (high surface area carbon) for its application in supercapacitor. A hybrid processing approach is proposed by integrating hydrothermal carbonization (HTC) process and unique marine protist, Thraustochytrium striatum cultivation.The cultivated protist biomass is recycled to HTC reactor to maximize the carbon recovery which ultimately increases the yield of hydrochar. A chemical/thermal activation process is applied to hydrochar to convert it to high surface area carbon which has application in supercapacitors. Besides hydrochar, the proposed HTC process produces aqueous phase (HTC-AP) containing dissolved organic compounds and nutrients (N & P). A modular system for protist biomass cultivation using HTC-AP is another goal of this project. It is required to maximize the carbon recovery from food waste and use the solubilized nutrients for protist biomass cultivation.The research objectives of this proposal include:Objective 1: Process simulation, optimization, and predictive modeling of HTC process for food waste conversion to hydrochar.Objective 2: Reduce metal impurities in hydrochar by applying a novel ultrasound-assisted leaching (UAL) process using acetic acid.Objective 3: Develop a novel thermal/chemical treatment process for converting hydrochar to a high surface area carbon for supercapacitor application.Objective 4: Study the biological treatment of the food waste-derived HTC-AP using suspended and granulated marine protist.Objective 5: Scale up studies, techno-economic, and life cycle assessment (TEA and LCA) of the proposed process.Objective 6: Develop outreach programs for the education and broader impacts to community.By the end of the project, we will demonstrate the entire integrated operation for food waste conversion to high surface area carbon electrode under the realistic conditions with a much higher (>50%) overall carbon conversion efficiency and demonstrate a way to reduce the disposal costs of the food waste stream by more than 40% compared to conventional anaerobic digestion.
Project Methods
A combination of experimental and modelling approach will be adopted for optimizing the proposed food waste valorization process. A predictive model for estimating the yield and quality of hydrochar from various food waste will be developed. Once the entire process is optimized, a scale up study through process simulation will be conducted. The process parameters will be used for developing techno-economic model to understand the economic viability of the proposed process in comparison to existing food waste valorization methods. The life cycle assessment analyses will inform the greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts of the project.The project success will be evaluated against the stated project objectives and by comparing with the target cost of food waste handling. The quality of produced high surface area carbon will be analyzed by characterizing its energy storage properties via supercapacitor fabrication.We will demonstrate the entire integrated operation for food waste conversion to high surface area carbon material under the realistic conditions with a much higher (>50%) overall carbon conversion efficiency and demonstrate a way to reduce the disposal costs of the food waste stream by more than 40% compared to conventional anaerobic digestion.The scientific outcomes from this project will be disseminated to scientific audiences through peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations/posters. Whereas outreach activities including 2-days workshop and community engagements proposed in this project will help educating local communities, pre-college students, and industry stakeholders.