A review of food waste characterization and treatment in anaerobic digestion

Abstract Anaerobic digestion is one of the main biological techniques to convert organic waste to energy. The resulting biogas can be harvested as renewable energy and as a nutrient rich compound that can be converted to soil conditioner. Food waste varies seasonally and geographically. It is resulting in a multiple potential for biogas between different studies. This article studies the anaerobic digestion of food waste in two sections, which are food waste characteristics and mono digestion of food waste. The purpose of this review is to connect the features of food waste to the biogas potential and to propose improved method to increase biogas production. It was concluded that, in terms of physical and biochemical properties, the variation in food waste characteristics would affect the efficiency of the process, including nutrient balance, mechanical treatment, thermal treatment and two-stage configuration. Thermal treatment can increase biogas production but unnecessary treatment can decrease the biodegradability of food waste.