OWS nv, Dok-Noord 5, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Social Sciences Unit, Institute for Agricultural and Fisheries Research, Burg. Van Gansberghelaan 115 Bus 2, 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium.
FEMS Microbiol Lett. 2021 May 28;368(9). doi: 10.1093/femsle/fnab056.
Annually, the EU produces more than 100 million tonnes of urban biowaste, which is largely under-valorized and in some cases even still landfilled without any energy or material recovery. If Europe wants to be ready for the future, it will need to make better use of this large biomass potential within a circular economy approach. The research project funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme entitled 'VOLATILE-Biowaste derived volatile fatty acid platform for biopolymers, bioactive compounds and chemical building blocks' aimed to produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from biowaste for reprocessing into products, materials or substances to close the material loop. During the project, the partners were able to obtain average volatile fatty acid yields of 627 g COD/kg organic matter (OM) for food waste, 448 g COD/kg OM for separately collected vegetable, garden and fruit waste (VGF) and 384 g COD/kg OM for the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OF-MSW) at concentrations ranging from 12 to 48 g/L, 6 to 40 g/L and 13 to 26 g/L, respectively. A membrane filtration cascade consisting of micro-, ultra- and nano-filtration followed by reverse osmosis was identified as a feasible way to purify and concentrate the VFA effluent, making them a suitable carbon source for further fermentation processes. Besides technical optimization, socio-economic and legal aspects associated with this platform technology were also studied and show that although this technology is still in development, it is providing an answer to changing societal and market expectations both regarding organic waste treatment and bio-based production strategies. Based on the current technological, economic and market evolutions, it is expected that the VFAP will play an important role in organic waste treatment in the coming years.
欧盟每年产生超过 1 亿吨城市生物废物，这些生物废物大部分没有得到充分利用，在某些情况下甚至仍未经任何能源或材料回收就被填埋。如果欧洲希望为未来做好准备，就需要在循环经济模式下更好地利用这一大规模生物质潜力。由欧盟委员会在“地平线 2020”计划下资助的研究项目，题为“VOLATILE-生物废物衍生的挥发性脂肪酸平台，用于生物聚合物、生物活性化合物和化学建筑模块”，旨在从生物废物中生产挥发性脂肪酸（VFA），以重新加工成产品、材料或物质，从而封闭材料循环。在项目实施期间，合作伙伴成功获得了以下平均挥发性脂肪酸产量：食品废物中有机物质（OM）的 627 g COD/kg、单独收集的蔬菜、花园和水果废物（VGF）中的 OM 的 448 g COD/kg、城市固体废物（MSW）中的有机部分（OF-MSW）中的 OM 的 384 g COD/kg，浓度分别为 12-48 g/L、6-40 g/L 和 13-26 g/L。研究表明，由微滤、超滤和纳滤以及反渗透组成的膜过滤级联是一种可行的方法，可以净化和浓缩 VFA 废水，使它们成为进一步发酵过程的合适碳源。除了技术优化外，还研究了与该平台技术相关的社会经济和法律方面，结果表明，尽管该技术仍在开发中，但它为有机废物处理和基于生物的生产策略的不断变化的社会和市场期望提供了答案。基于当前的技术、经济和市场发展，预计 VFAP 将在未来几年在有机废物处理中发挥重要作用。
