ABSTRACT
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, every year, roughly 1.3 billion tons, that is, a third of the food produced in the world for human consumption, is lost or wasted. Food waste includes uneaten food and leftovers from food preparation. Food loss and waste amounts to a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, labor, and capital. It also needlessly produces greenhouse gas emissions, and it contributes to global warming and climate change. Across the globe, the treatment and management of food waste poses serious environmental and societal challenges. Among other methods that are currently available for the treatment of food waste, bioprocessing through anaerobic digestion/biomethanation is gaining the attention of the international community. When the temperature of the biomethanation process is maintained above 50°C (thermophilic), the rate of reaction is as much as four to five times higher than that of conventional mesophilic anaerobic digestion. Biogas and methane content in the biogas produced also are higher. The thermophilic biomethanation process does not require the addition of excess water other than what is present in the food waste, so the digestate produced from the process contains much less water and is more highly stabilized. Hence, it is easier to bioprocess digestate using techniques such as composting to produce organic manure/soil conditioner.
