School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China.
J Environ Manage. 2019 Jun 15;240:343-351. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.03.119. Epub 2019 Apr 4.
"Smart Food Waste Recycling Bin" (S-FRB) systems have recently been developed to facilitate the transformation of food waste into an end-product suitable for use as an energy resource following circular economy principles. This decentralized waste decomposition system utilizes fermentative microorganisms for the treatment of organic food waste and has emerged as a possible solution for coping with both landfill capacity and greenhouse gas emissions issues. This paper utilizes Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to determine the environmental impacts associated with this S-FRB technology and identify environmental hotspots to reduce these impacts. In this paper, we have conducted an on-site pilot-scale study for 2 months at a canteen located at the City University of Hong Kong, which resulted in a 90% reduction in the mass of food waste treated in the S-FRB system. Based on this pilot-scale study hypothetical scenarios were developed to determine potential environmental impacts potential scaled-up deployments of the S-FRB instrument based on varied assumptions. Examination of the LCAs of these different scenarios demonstrated the potential for further reduction in CO equivalent emissions during food waste treatment. Cumulative Energy Demand (CED) and Energy Return on Investment (EROI) were also investigated to understand the energy balance energy of the S-FRB technology. Finally, using current waste treatment methods in Hong Kong as a benchmark, the environmental impacts of the S-FRB are compared with the conventional food waste treatment approaches such as landfilling and organic waste treatment facilities (OWTF).
"智能食物垃圾回收箱"（S-FRB）系统最近被开发出来，以方便根据循环经济原则将食物垃圾转化为适合用作能源资源的最终产品。这种分散式废物分解系统利用发酵微生物处理有机食物垃圾，是应对垃圾填埋场容量和温室气体排放问题的一种可能的解决方案。本文利用生命周期评估（LCA）来确定与这种 S-FRB 技术相关的环境影响，并确定环境热点以减少这些影响。本文在香港城市大学的一个食堂进行了为期 2 个月的现场试点研究，结果表明，S-FRB 系统处理的食物垃圾质量减少了 90%。基于这个试点研究，我们设想了不同的情景，以确定根据不同假设扩大 S-FRB 仪器部署的潜在环境影响。对这些不同情景的生命周期评估的考察表明，在处理食物垃圾时，CO 当量排放有进一步减少的潜力。还研究了累积能源需求（CED）和投资回报（EROI），以了解 S-FRB 技术的能源平衡。最后，以香港目前的废物处理方法为基准，将 S-FRB 的环境影响与传统的食物废物处理方法（如垃圾填埋和有机废物处理设施（OWTF））进行了比较。
