Product name
Anaerobic digestion, food waste, at plant
Reference flow unit
1 tonne
System boundaries
Includes pre-treatment of food waste at the biogas facility and the anaerobic digestion process. The pre-treatment includes incineration of reject which consist of organic material, plastic collection bags and mis-sortings. The inventory does not include downstream processes for the secondary products (biogas, digestate and CO2 as a product) or avoided emissions as a consequence of the secondary products substituting other products. Transport of the organic waste to the biogas plant is not included.
Wastes and end-of-life
The inventory represents the service of treating 1 tonne of organic waste. The dataset includes incineration of reject from pre-treatment.
Use advice of the dataset
This dataset should be used when modelling waste treatment of organic waste by anaerobic digestion. The transport of the organic waste to the biogas plant is not included, as this is dependent on where the waste is generated. If the purpose of the study is to compare treatment options (e.g. anaerobic digestion and energy recovery), the avoided emissions obtained when the generated secondary products substitute other products should be included. 1 tonne of food waste can be assumed to generate: 131 Nm3 raw (non upgraded) biogas, 6.7 kg N of liquid biofertilizer and 5.2 kg CO2 (delivered to greenhouse).
Contact info
kal@norsus.no
Technology description
Production process: 1) Mechanical pretreatment to remove unwanted objects and reduction of particle size: screw press, grinder, hydro cyclone. 2) Sterilization process for 1 hour at 70 °C 3) Anaerobic digestion: Hydraulic retention time (HRT) 36.5 days.
Quality level
Very good
Location
Norway
Geographical representativeness
The biogas facility is located in the Vestfold and Telemark county.
Reference year
2018
Time representativeness
Report was published in 2020.
Other comments on methods approaches
Ecoinvent 3 – allocation, cut-off by classification, version 3.8 was used as background database.
References
Lyng, K.-A., Saxegård, S., 2020, Livsløpsvurdering av produktene og tjenestene til Den Magiske Fabrikken. OR.23.20. NORSUS, Kråkerøy. Available from: https://norsus.no/publikasjon/livslopsvurdering-av-produktene-og-tjenestene-til-den-magiske-fabrikken/ (In Norwegian)
