Global Biomethanation Potential from Food Waste- A Review

Abstract

Globally, there is a great variation in food production and food waste generation. These make the application of biomethanation to gain interest in reduction of harmful effects of the waste generated in the environment as well as human health. Furthermore, it could play an important role to compensate the loss in food security by energy security. The statistics of the global food production and waste generation was collected from the literature, it was found that roughly one-third of the edible parts of food produced for human consumption gets lost or wasted globally, which is about 1.3 billion ton per year. The total per capita production of edible parts of food for human consumption is, in Europe and North-America, about 900 kg/year and, in sub- Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia, 460 kg/year. Per capita food wasted by consumers in Europe and North-America is 95-115 kg/year, while in sub-Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia is 6-11 kg/year. It has been reported that if 5.5 million tons of food waste is treated by anaerobic digestion, it could generate enough electricity to power 164,000 houses. These make it suitable for each and every country to generate methane from the available type of food waste.

Keywords: Biomethanation, Food waste, Anaerobic digestion, Per capita