Pilot-Scale Anaerobic Co-Digestion of Food Waste and Polylactic Acid

Bioplastics are frequently utilized in daily life, particularly for food packaging and carrier bags. They can be delivered to biogas plants through a separate collection of the organic fraction municipal waste (OFMSW). The increased demand use bioplastics aimed at mitigating plastic pollution raises significant questions concerning their life cycle compatibility with management units. Anaerobic digestion (AD) OFMSW is valuable resource production. In this work, valorization poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) composed within Biowaste Bioplastic (B2B) Project framework was studied laboratory pilot-scale anaerobic liquid conditions. Taking into account that addition PLLA biowaste increase production, we performed laboratory-scale tests on enriched different molecular-weight PLLAs produced from or commercial mesophilic temperature 37 °C. highest molecular weight subjected AD pilot scale further validate our findings. production had no apparent negative impact operation reactors used scale. Biogas higher when using lowest weight. experiments, co-digestion FW by 1.1 times. When added feed, biomethane 8% higher, while volatile solids (VS) total chemical oxygen (TCOD) removal were almost same. Importantly, effect observed digesters.