Investigating the effect of aeration on reducing food moisture by biological drying method

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Civil, Water, and Environment, Shahid Beheshti University

2 EnvironmentResearch Center,, Shahid Beheshti University

Abstract

Biological drying is one of the pre-processing methods of waste to reduce its moisture. Municipal waste in developing countries, especially Iran, has high humidity due to separation from the source of dry waste and high volume of organic waste. The high humidity of municipal waste makes it difficult to manage this type of waste, reduce the thermal value, produce leachate and complicate disposal and recycling methods. Biological drying is an automated thermal process in which the rate of drying with the biological heat released during the decomposition of organic matter in situ increases and reduces moisture while retaining calories. Therefore, this method can be used as a method of pre-processing organic waste to produce heat and convert it into a fuel with high calorific value. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of aeration on reducing the moisture content of food waste by biological drying of perishable organic waste. Hence, a new pilot-scale biological drying system was designed for municipal solid waste processing. Also, important and influential factors on biological drying including mixing rate, moisture, particle size, aeration time, aeration amount and bulking factor were investigated. Finally, the pilot performance on perishable food waste prepared from the central self-service of the main campus of Shahid Beheshti University was evaluated with two aeration rates. The results showed that the weight, volume and moisture content of the waste was significantly reduced and the ph value of the waste leachate was stabilized at 8.35. Moisture is also greatly reduced so that at the end of the first phase is equal to 25.10 and the second phase is equal to 21.80 and volatile solids are increased. The final weight of the waste reached 6.86 kg and as a result, aeration in reducing the moisture content of perishable food waste by biological drying method is a sustainable method to reduce the moisture content of the waste.

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