Upgrading/ Disposal of Municipal Solid Waste through the Production of Methyl Esters of Volatile Fatty Acids

This work shows the technical feasibility of a process for the conversion of the mechanically selected Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Wastes (OFMSW) into methyl esters usable as octane enhancers. The process allows the contemporary production of soil amendments at high content of organic substance. It includes the following main steps: acidogenic fermentation of the OFMSW, Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA) extraction into an aqueous phase as ammonium salts, VFA esterification in the presence of hexadecane as methyl esters extracting solvent, and flash operations for separation of esters from hexadecane and for excess methanol recovery. The overall production of esters mixture was 130 g/kg of dry OFMSW and the produced soil amendment amounted to about 0.44 kg/kg OFMSW. The residual unfermented material (0.45 kg/kg OFMSW) shows a scarce content of organic substance (mainly plastics) and can be incinerated in mixture with refuse derived fuels.