Valorisation of food waste for valuable by-products generation with economic assessment

Xietian Zheng; Xikai Chen; Anlan Qu; Wenjing Yang; Lu Tao; Feiyue Li; Jingang Huang; Xiaobin Xu; Junhong Tang; Pingzhi Hou; Wei Han

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117762

Valorisation of food waste for valuable by-products generation with economic assessment

J Environ Manage. 2023 Jul 15:338:117762. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117762. Epub 2023 Mar 30.

Authors

Xietian Zheng¹, Xikai Chen¹, Anlan Qu², Wenjing Yang¹, Lu Tao¹, Feiyue Li¹, Jingang Huang³, Xiaobin Xu⁴, Junhong Tang¹, Pingzhi Hou⁴, Wei Han⁵

Affiliations

¹ College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China.
² College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Xi'an 712100, China.
³ College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China; School of Automation, The Belt and Road Information Research Institute, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China.
⁴ School of Automation, The Belt and Road Information Research Institute, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China.
⁵ College of Materials and Environmental Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China; School of Automation, The Belt and Road Information Research Institute, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, 310018, China. Electronic address: hanwei1982@hdu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37003224
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117762

Abstract

This study assessed the techno-economic feasibility of a biorefinery for valuable by-products (mainly hydrogen, ethanol and fertilizer) generation from food waste. The plant was designed to be built in Zhejiang province (China) with a processing capacity of 100 t food waste per day. It was found that the total capital investment (TCI) and annual operation cost (AOC) of the plant were US$ 7625549 and US$ 2432290.7 year^-1, respectively. After the tax, US$ 3141867.6 year^-1 of net profit could be reached. The payback period (PBP) was 3.5 years at a 7% discount rate. The internal rate of return (IRR) and return on investment (ROI) were 45.54% and 43.88%, respectively. Shutdown condition could happen with the feed of food waste less than 7.84 t day^-1 (2587.2 t year^-1) for the plant. This work was beneficial for attracting interests and even investment for valuable by-products generation from food waste in large scale.

Keywords: Food waste; Hydrogen; Organic fertilizer; Sensitivity analysis; Techno-economic assessment.

MeSH terms

China
Cost-Benefit Analysis
Food*
Hydrogen
Refuse Disposal*

Substances

Hydrogen