As the world population increases, the waste produced by municipals and food producers has become a huge challenge for waste industries around the world. There are millions of tons of food wastes and agricultural wastes every year—what we call “organic wastes”. As food production becomes more intensive, dealing with the dirty side becomes increasingly demanding and difficult.
There are a number of methods, traditional and technologically advanced, currently used to encounter those challenges in the industry. However, a new technology called rapid thermophilic digestion transforms a variety of biowastes into high quality organic fertilizer in just 24 hours.
Traditional Organic Waste
Organic wastes are materials that originate from plant and animal sources. If left unchecked, it can cause many bio-security issues such as greenhouse gases, foul odor, pathogens, contamination of groundwater and harboring disease vectors like pests. Currently, the most common method in treating organic waste is a process called composting. This traditional method dates back many centuries where farmers would leave organic wastes in the open to decompose slowly and naturally on their land. With modernized composting practices and equipment, it now takes months or even weeks for the process to be complete. This is dependent on the many factors such as the size, type and composition of the waste materials. Such organic waste materials consist of valuable nutrients that are good for soil and crops.
Another method that is technologically more advanced is biogas conversion. This technology produces biogas that can be used to generate electricity or power motor vehicles. This technology usually involves large-scale projects and requires huge capital investment. While it offers the benefits of producing valuable biogas, many systems can treat only a narrow optimal range of feedstock, which can also require greater additional pre-treatment. In addition, after the conversion process ‘creams off’ the organic waste, it produces a substrate by-product which needs to be treated or disposed of properly.
Rapid Thermophilic Digestion
Recently, a cutting-edge technology has broken into the waste management scene. Rapid thermophilic digestion can convert organic wastes into organic fertilizer in just 24 hours. This technology adopts the aerobic digestion system, meaning that the microorganisms inside the waste break down with the presence of oxygen from the atmosphere. The system comprises of two key components, proprietary enzymes and a digestor in order to achieve an accelerated degradation process to break down complex organic compounds into simpler organic matter at an unprecedented speed. These proprietary enzymes consist of a variety of naturally occurring and non-competing bacteria.
The process for rapid thermophilic digestion is very simple. The waste materials are loaded into the enclosed digestor and the enzymes (in powder form) are added at 1kg per ton of waste material. The temperature of the digestor is maintained at 80˚C to remove all harmful pathogens in the wastes while air is blown into the digestor periodically by the air pumps, providing an optimal working environment for the enzymes. The enclosed process guarantees that there is no leakage of offensive smells or biomass, containing all nutrients within the materials and also removing the possibility of any bio-security issues usually encountered by the waste management industry regarding the handling of organic wastes. The only by-products coming out from the process are water vapor and carbon dioxide. After just 24 hours, all the waste materials are converted into top quality organic fertilizer.
Beneficial for Waste Managers
There is a very wide application of rapid thermophilic digestion for the waste managers to benefit from. The system deals with several types of organic wastes, including municipal wastes (e.g. food wastes, sewage sludge), crop wastes, food processing wastes and even animal slaughtering wastes such as discard innards, unwanted fats and meats. Moreover, it could also be used to treat substrates released from biogas plants to convert into a more valuable product, providing a zero-waste solution for biogas operations. Waste managers will find that it is a very easy process. First, for a 50 ton input machine, only three to four workers are needed to load the input and unload the output after 24 hours, pack the fertilizer and for the cleaning. Second, not much space is required. For example, it only requires a maximum space of about 1,000 sqm to process 50 tons of waste per day. The space includes the processing, storage area and the raw material and cooling areas. Since the area where composting would usually take place is reduced, the waste facility can use the freed up space for other value added operations. Finally, the waste facilities can engage with landscapers and agricultural farms to supply the end product fertilizer.
An Alternative Solution
Accelerated aerobic degradation through the introduction of cultured micro-organisms offers a genuine breakthrough in terms of rapidly treating organic wastes at the point of production. Rapid thermophilic digestion solves the problem of dealing with otherwise intractable wastes by injecting new life and value into it, thereby achieving a phenomenal Return on Investment (ROI) potential through its short processing time and quality end product.
Biomax Technologies is a Singapore-based international company in the research and development of sustainable green technology, harnessing proprietary, breakthrough, environment-enhancing solutions while helping businesses use science and technology to achieve the greatest profitability for their investments. The Rapid Thermophilic Digestion Technology is the flagship product of Biomax. For more information about how this type of technology can benefit your business, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.biomaxtech.com.