Chapter 7: Pretreatment Equipment and Food Waste Preparation for Anaerobic Digestion

Pretreatment equipment for food waste preparation is described at a laboratory and industrial scale. Small-scale methods include sonication, ultrasound, and microwave. The majority of industrial-scale installations rely on mechanical particle size reduction and heat treatment. Pretreatment equipment may be used not only to prepare food waste for anaerobic digestion (AD) but also to remove contaminants harmful to the AD process, enhance AD process performance, and achieve regulatory compliance: particularly in achieving product and process hygiene standards. The need for whole-life assessment of pretreatment technology is discussed, particularly in terms of energy consumption and environmental risks associated with the dispersal of plastic residues and microplastics.