Carleton University

Purpose

Effective management of organic waste reduces pollution and helps to preserve land and water resources. Organic waste (primarily food waste) in Northern landfills generate leachates polluting fragile Northern ecosystems. At the same time, such waste represents the only available source of renewable biomass in the North. The Project will develop and demonstrate an innovative bioprocess for enhanced biomethane production (bioenergy) from organic food waste, which also results in the production of organic fertilizer and clean water. The Project’s bioprocess is based on a combination of food waste pre-treatment in a leach-bed reactor (LBR) and enhanced biomethane production in a bioelectrochemically enhanced anaerobic digestion (BEAD) reactor based on the BEAST (bioelectrochemical anaerobic sewage treatment) concept. This concept will be tested at a pilot scale and is expected to result in a simple, robust, and low-cost system that is optimized for operation in Northern and remote communities. To reduce energy consumption and optimize BEAD performance at low temperatures, local knowledge will be used to determine locally available sources of organic waste and local microbial inoculum for BEAD operation.