2013년 폐기물 해양배출 금지로 인하여 음폐수 육상처리가 의무화되었으며, 그로 인하여 음폐수 육상처리방안에 대한 새로운 방안들이 제시되고 있다. 음폐수와 같은 고농도의 폐수는 많은 유기물을 함유하고 있기 때문에, 이러한 유기물로부터 에너지를 회수하는 방안들이 연구되고 있으며, 그중 하나가 미생물 에너지 전환기술이다. 미생물연료전지는 혐기성 조건에서 미생물을 이용하여 유기물질을 에너지발생원으로 이용하여 전기를 생산한다. 따라서, 화학에너지를 전기에너지로 변화시키므로 별도의 오염물질을 발생시키지 않아 친환경 에너지 전환기술로 주목 받고 있다. 본 연구에서는 Single Chamber인 미생물연료전지를 이용하여 음폐수 초기 pH 및 기질교체율에 따른 미생물 연료전지의 성능에 대해 알아보기 위하여 실험을 진행하였다. 대상폐수는 수도권매립지관리공사 내 음폐수처리장 혐기성소화조 처리수(pH 7.56, SCODcr 956 mg/L)를 사용하였다. 산화전극과 환원적극으로 각각 Graphite felt, Carbon cloth를 사용하였으며, 분리막은 Ceramic막을 사용하였고, 외부저항 1,000Ω, 운전온도 35℃이었다. 실험은 초기 pH를 5~9로 설정하여 batch로 진행하였으며, 그 결과 중성 조건 즉, pH 6, 7에서 전력발생량이 가장 안정적으로 발생되는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 또한, 기질교체율을 1%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%의 경우로했을 경우, 10%일 때 기질교체시 충격부하에 의해 미생물연료전지의 성능이 저하되는 것을 알 수 있었다. 이를 바탕으로, 기질교체율을 충격부하의 영향을 받지 않는 1%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%로 설정하였고 초기 pH를 6~7로 조절하여 각 pH 별 기질교체율에 따른 미생물연료전지의 전력발생량을 비교하였다. 실험은 매일 같은 시간 기질을 교체하는 Fed-batch로 진행하였다. 음폐수 초기 pH 및 기질교체율에 따른 미생물연료전지의 성능을 비교한 결과, pH 6일 경우 기질교체율 1%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%에서 평균 0.552 V ~ 0.605 V의 범위를 보였으며, 최대값은 기질교체율 6%에서 나타났다. 또한 pH 7, 기질교체율 1%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%에서 전력발생량은 평균 0.486 V ~ 0.569 V의 범위이었으며 pH 6의 경우와 마찬가지로 기질교체율 6%에서 최대값을 나타내었다.

In this study the effects of co-digestion of sewage sludge and food waste leachate on the anaerobic digestion efficiencyfrom sewage treatment facilities in S. Korea were investigated. For this study 15 facilities were selected including 9facilities treating sewage sludge only (S-Only) and 6 facilities treating sewage sludge and food waste leachate (S-MIX).The average volatile solid (VS) removal rate of S-Only was 30.7% and that of S-MIX was 45.2%. The COD removalrate of S-MIX (61.3%) was higher than that of S-Only (48.6%). It has been observed that the anaerobic digestion efficiencyof S-MIX was superior to that of S-Only because S-MIX contained more sufficient nutrient with higher VS contents andtotal solid (TS) contents emerging from food waste leachate. Therefore food waste leachate addition in sewage sludgeanaerobic digestion would be the preferred option to treat only sewage sludge.

Anaerobically treated food wastewater still contains high concentration of organic carbon and nitrogen. Consequently,subsequent treatments are needed to meet the effluent criteria of wastewater. Injection of treated food wastewater into awaste landfill body could be one alternative for its subsequent treatment. In this study, preliminary experiments wereconducted to inject treated food wastewater into waste landfill body. Firstly, Biochemical Methane Potential (BMP) testwas conducted to evaluate the methane generation potential of the injected food wastewater. Secondly, anaerobicallytreated food wastewater showed clogging problem during the initial stage of laboratory scale lysimeter injectionexperiment. Accordingly, pretreatments were needed, and we experimented the change of viscosity of the wastewater afterchemical injection (1N acid or base solution) or aeration of wastewater. From the results, BMP for the treated foodwastewater showed 373.8mL CH4/g VS, which was 53% of untreated food wastewater’s. Practically feasible solution toreduce the viscosity of treated food wastewater was 1 day aeration before injection into the waste landfill body.

음식물류폐기물의 처리는 소각 및 매립량이 급격히 줄어들고, 발생량의 94%가 사료화, 퇴비화 등으로 자원화가 이루어진다. 이 과정에서 침출, 증발, 분해에 의하여 음폐수는 발생된다. 2013년도 1월 현재 해양배출(약 3,800 ton/day)을 포함한 전체 음폐수(9,431 ton/day)를 육상처리하며 그중 하수처리장 유입처리가 70%로 가장 높다. 본 연구에서는 월별 소화온도(중온, 고온)에 따른 하수슬러지처리와 음폐수 병합처리에 따라 가스발생량, 소화효율을 비교하였다. 하수슬러지 단독 처리의 경우 28,532~44,500 ton/day, 음폐수 병합처리는 49,906~52,240 ton/day의 가스가 발생되며, 하수처리장의 슬러지에 음폐수를 병합처리 할 경우 부하율 0.56 kg･VS/m³/day로 나타났다. 소화효율(VS기준) 또한 음폐수 반입 처리 효율이 46~55%로 단독처리 효율 34~46% 보다 높게 나타났다. 따라서, 하수슬러지 단독으로 처리할 경우보다 음폐수를 병합처리 할 경우 가스 생산량 및 유기물제거율 등 처리효율이 향상되었으며, 혐기성소화조 운전효율을 증대할 수 있다.

Batch cultivations were performed to evaluate the influences of the initial pH condition on mesophilic and thermophilic acidogenic fermentation with food waste recycling wastewater. In both conditions of mesophilic and thermophilic fermentation, TVFAs production rates were maximized at the initial pH 7 condition as 0.15 and 0.23 g TVFAs/L·hr, respectively. And pH was also maintained stably between 6 and 7 during 72hr acidogenic cultivation at both conditions. However, predominant VFA components were different according to reaction temperature conditions. In mesophilic condition, propionic acid which has low conversion efficiency to methane was accumulated up to 1,348 mg/L while acetic and butyric acid were predominant in thermophilic condition. Therefore, thermophilic acidogenic fermentation was superior for the effective VFAs production than mesophilic condition. From the DGGE analysis, the band patterns were different according to the initial pH conditions but the correlations of the each band were increased in similar pH conditions. These results mean that microbial communities were certainly affected by the initial pH condition. Consequently, the adjustment of the initial pH to neutral region and thermophilic operation are needed to enhance acidogenic fermentation of food waste recycling wastewater.

In this study, life cycle assesment (LCA) was conducted based on a functional unit of 1 ton of food waste recycling from collection and transportation to treatment processes such as feed production, composting, other recycling and incineration for 45 public food waste recycling plants. The Korean life cycle inventory (LCI) data were used for the main input material and energy. For the other input data, which could not be provided by the Korean LCI database, data of other countries were used from the database by Ecoinvent, and the strength of food wastewater for LCI DB was divided low and high concentration. In case of low strength of food wastewater, environmental impacts were suggested incineration, composting and feed production in the order, where collection and transportation were identified as the major influencing factors by contribution analysis and sensitive analysis. Contrary, in case of high strength of food wastewater, environmental impacts were suggested composting, feed production and incineration in the order, where treatment of food wastewater was identified as the major influencing factor. Therefore, discharge volume as well as concentration of food wastewater was found to be important parameter of the LCA.