LCA

Evaluation of Energy Recovery from Food

Processing Waste and Wastewater using Life
Cycle Assessment
Case Study on Tofu Industry
YeeShee Tan
Yasuhiro Fukushima

Environmental System Engineering Lab

Department of Environmental Engineering
National Cheng Kung University (Taiwan)

Introduction
Food Industry

Food
Processing
Waste/waste
2

Recent
Currentadvancement:
situation:
Recover
Contain high
energy
chemical
from
food
oxygen demand processing
(COD).
15,000 mg/L, 150 times
waste/wastewater
while
eliminating
greater
pollution
than
the
by
using
standard.
biological
Not properly treated.
technologies.
Climate
Small change factory
Reduction of GHGs
distributed
in
emission area without
residential
Water
quality treatment
a centralized
Reduction of COD
system.
Distributed
energy

Objectives
To develop a design support system for an energy

recovery from food processing waste/wastewater.

Food Industry
GHGs, COD
3

Design
system

Methodology
Synthesis

Process synthesis is
established
to
synthesize an energy
recovery process that
deal
with
food
processing
waste/
wastewater
Comparative LCA is
conducted
to
evaluate
the
potential of GHGs
emission
by
the
waste-to-energy
Evaluation
process.

Environm
ent

Food Industr
The
most
conventional energy
production
is
selected
as
a
benchmark
Basis for Evaluation

Case study
A small scale tofu factory (Residential area, Tainan)

1 kg
Tofu

1.5 L Wastewate

Carbohydrates: 10,456 m

Tofu factory
3.03 kg Dreg
5

Carbohydrates:
7,306 mg/L

Process
Characteristics Synthesis
of
waste/wastewat
er
Carbohydrates

Types of energy
recovery
Hydrogen dark
fermentation

Hydrogen photo
fermentation
Anaerobic
digestion

Oil

Biodiesel
production

Sugar

Bioethanol
production

Condition and
constraints of
process
Dark
fermentation
Input:
Carbohydrates
Output: Volatile
fatty acid (VFA)
Photo
effluent, CO2 & H2
fermentation
Input: VFA
Output: CO2 &
H2

Rely on
Anaerobic
availability
digestion of
light
source.
Input:
VFA
Output: CO2 &

Flow Chart of Process

Start
Synthesis
Is the major content in
waste/wastewater carbohydrates?

No Recovery by other processes,

e.g. biodiesel production etc.

Yes

Recovery by dark
fermentation
Is the effluent still at a
level above standard?

No

Discharged directly to the

environment.

No

Recovery by photo
fermentation

No

Discharged directly to the

environment.

Yes

Are they contained

with solid VFA?
Yes

Recovery by anaerobic
digestion
Yes

Is the effluent still at a

level above standard?

Comparative Life Cycle

Assessment
Soy

Tofu processing

Wastewater/dreg

Evaluated scenario
GHG

Supplementary
feedstock
GHG

Electricity

Tofu

7,350 L wastewater
14,847 L diluted dre
Reference scenario

GHG

Energy recovery
from
wastewater/dreg

GHG

Waste/wastewater
treatment

Effluent
GHG

Electricity

GHG

GHG

GHG

Effluent

Wastewater
treatment

Energy production
by reference
mechanism
Energy
( H2, CH4)

Feedstock

30,760 L-H2
1,630 L-CH

Evaluated Scenario
Dreg

Dilution

Tofu
Wastew
ater CO

Hydrogen
Dark-fermentation Fermentation
wastewater
Slud
ge

Anaerobic
digestion sludge

CO2

Anaerobic
Digestion

Wastewater
treatment

H2

Effluent

CH4

Reference Scenario
Waste/wastewater
treatment

GHG

Tofu
Wastew
ater

Municipal
wastewater treatment

Dreg

Composting

Energy production by reference

Natur
al mechanism
GHG

Power
plant
10

GHG

gas
Steam
reformin
g
Efflue
nt

H2

Natur
al
gas

Methane
extracti
on

CH4

Result (1/2)
By interview and literature review, the process
inventory can be collected.
For a small tofu factory that produces 4900
kg tofu in a day,
30,760 L-H2/day

7,877
Wastewater:
14,793
Diluted dreg:
960
11

Dark
fermentati
on
3,600 L

1,630 L-CH4/day

Anaerobic
digestion
1,560

Wastewater:
2,929
Diluted dreg:
COD190(unit: mg/L)

19,000 L 47
Wastewater:
88
Diluted
dreg: 6

Result (2/2)

Evaluated scenario

kg CO2-equiv./day

3,616
3,526

Reference scenario
90

12

Discussion
100 tofu factories in Taiwan.

Assumed all are small scale factory in

residential area.
Climate change
353 tons of CO2 equiv./day can be reduced.
Water quality
14,514 ton COD and 3,476 ton COD can be treated by

dark fermentation and anaerobic digestion,

respectively in a day.
Treated to a level below standard, i.e. 100 mg/L.
Distributed energy production
3,076,000 L-H2/day and 163,000 L-CH4/day will be
produced.

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Dark
fermenta
tion

Anaerobi
c
digestion

Conclusion
Using case study, the design support system has been

developed.

By synthesis
Compose of 2 processes, i.e. dark fermentation and anaerobic

digestion.

By calculation
Size of reactor

3,600 L for dark fermentation and 19,000 L for anaerobic

digestion.
Productivity
30,760 L-H2 for dark fermentation and 1,630 L-CH4 for
anaerobic digestion.
COD removal
7,877 mg/L 1,560 mg/L 47 mg/L
GHG emissions
3,526 kg-CO2 equiv. can be reduced.

As a preliminary attempt, synthesis and evaluation of the

14

process is carried out. More detailed design scheme

should be elaborated in the future study.

YeeShee Tan
Email: ys_ethene@hotmail.com

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