Extraction of medium chain fatty acids from organic municipal waste and subsequent production of bio-based fuels

This paper provides an overview on investigations for a new technology to generate bio‐based fuel additives from bio‐waste. The investigations are taking place at the composting plant in Darmstadt–Kranichstein (Germany). The aim is to explore the potential of bio‐waste as feedstock in producing different bio‐based products (or bio‐based fuels). For this investigation, a facultative anaerobic process is to be integrated into the normal aerobic waste treatment process for composting. The bio‐waste is to be treated in four steps to produce biofuels. The first step is the facultative anaerobic treatment of the waste in a rotting box namely percolate to generate a fatty‐acid rich liquid fraction. The Hydrolysis takes place in the rotting box during the waste treatment. The organic compounds are then dissolved and transferred into the waste liquid phase. Browne et al. (2013) describes the hydrolysis as an enzymatically degradation of high solid substrates to soluble products which are further degraded to volatile fatty acids (VFA). This is confirmed by analytical tests done on the liquid fraction. After the percolation, volatile and medium chain fatty acids are found in the liquid phase. Concentrations of fatty acids between 8.0 and 31.5 were detected depending on the nature of the input material. In the second step, a fermentation process will be initiated to produce additional fatty acids. Existing microorganism mass is activated to degrade the organic components that are still remaining in the percolate. After fermentation the quantity of fatty acids in four investigated reactors increased 3–5 times. While fermentation mainly non‐polar fatty acids (pentanoic to octanoic acid) are build. Next to the fermentation process, a chain‐elongation step is arranged by adding ethanol to the fatty acid rich percolate. While these investigations a chain‐elongation of mainly fatty acids with pair numbers of carbon atoms (acetate, butanoic and hexanoic acid) are demonstrated. After these three pre‐treatments, the percolate is brought to a refinery to extract the non‐polar fatty acids using bio‐diesel, which was generated from used kitchen oil at the refinery. The extraction tests in the lab have proved that the efficiency of the liquid–liquid‐extraction is directly linked with the chain length and polarity of the fatty acids. By using a non‐polar bio‐diesel mainly the non‐polar fatty acids, like pentanoic to octanoic acid, are extracted. After extraction, the bio‐diesel enriched with the fatty acids is esterified. As a result bio‐diesel with a lower viscosity than usual is produced. The fatty acids remaining in the percolate after the extraction can be used in another fermentation process to generate biogas.