Recalcitrant organic residue compositions and the resource recovery from a food waste treatment facility

The necessity to mitigate the environmental impact of recalcitrant organic residues (RORs) and harness the valuable bio-energy products has stimulated investigations on the application of pyrolysis technology in the treatment and recycling of RORs. In this study, based on the thermogravimetric analysis results, the ROR temperature requirement for the final decomposition was higher than 450 °C and ranged between 500–650 °C. Experiments on the ROR pyrolysis were conducted in a fixed-bed pyrolysis reactor at temperatures of 600–900 °C and a heating rate of 20 °C min−1. Beneficial products such as char, gas, and bio-oil were obtained during the pyrolysis process. The analyzed biochar average pore diameter of 11.01 nm and surface area of 73.54 m2 g−1 reflect features than can enhance bioprocess technology performance and agronomy application potential. The pyrolytic oil analysis revealed a low heating value (LHV) of 28.4 MJ kg−1 at 600 °C, offering the possibility to address the bio-energy challenges. The results showed that pyrolysis of the ROR from a food waste (FW) treatment facility is a beneficial approach offering waste-to-resources opportunity.