Advanced anaerobic biotechnologies for transformation of municipal solid organic waste to (bio)chemicals

将城市固体有机废物转化为（生物）化学品的先进厌氧生物技术

• 批准号: RGPIN-2020-06315
• 负责人: Hussain, Abid
• 金额: $ 2.62万
• 依托单位: Carleton University
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=749064
• 关键词: Advanced; anaerobic; biotechnologies; transformation; municipal

Effective management of municipal solid waste (MSW) is vital for protecting public health and ensuring environmental sustainability. Landfilling of waste is the primary method of waste disposal in Canada, which can lead to adverse health and environmental effects, including formation of toxic gases, greenhouse gas emissions and pollution of subsurface environment. To address these issues, municipalities across Canada have set a zero-waste target to divert organic waste from landfills by 2030-2040. This has spurred interest in the development of technologies for sustainable management of organic fraction of municipal solid waste (food waste, garden waste, paper, etc.), which accounts for 30-40% of the waste disposed. Anaerobic biotechnologies provide dual advantage of simultaneous treatment and recovery of high-value products from organic waste and are therefore amongst the most promising solutions to this challenge. The proposed research focuses on the development of anaerobic biotechnologies for the conversion of solid organic waste to high-value chemicals such as carboxylates. Carboxylates are industrially important chemicals and are currently produced from non-renewable petrochemicals. Thus, anaerobic transformation of organic waste to carboxylates establishes an environmentally benign process for organic waste management and turns an environmental liability (organic waste) into an economic opportunity for Canada. The current anaerobic processes for conversion of organic waste to carboxylates suffers from the following major drawbacks: i) low degradation rate of the organic matter, ii) necessity of pre-treatment and dilution of organics due to unsuitable reactor designs and iii) lack of measures to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) generated during carboxylates production. The proposed research will address these critical drawbacks to advance sustainable, waste-derived carboxylates production. The applicant will pursue three key objectives to meet these goals: i) engineer a novel dry fermenter (DF) with an in-built technology for accelerating waste degradation rates and carboxylates production, ii) develop a microbial electrosynthesis (MES) system for subsequent conversion of CO2 generated in DF to carboxylates, to maximize carboxylates yield from organic waste and iii) fundamental understanding and optimization of the biological system (microbial populations) in DF and MES to further enhance carboxylate production, and create a highly effective and economical solution for sustainable organic waste management. This research program will also produce the next generation of highly qualified personnel (HQP) in the field of sustainable waste management by providing hands-on training on advanced analytical techniques and state of the art biotechnologies for resource recovery from waste. The HQP will lead innovation in this area and place Canada at the forefront in the fast-growing clean technology market.

有效管理城市固体废物（MSW）对于保护公众健康和确保环境可持续性至关重要。在加拿大，垃圾填埋是处理垃圾的主要方法，这会对健康和环境产生不利影响，包括形成有毒气体、排放温室气体和污染地下环境。为了解决这些问题，加拿大各地的市政当局制定了零废物目标，到2030-2040年将有机废物从垃圾填埋场转移。这激发了对城市固体废物（食物废物、花园废物、纸张等）的有机部分的可持续管理技术开发的兴趣，这占了处理的废物的30-40%。厌氧生物技术提供了从有机废物中同时处理和回收高价值产品的双重优势，因此是应对这一挑战的最有前途的解决方案之一。 拟议的研究重点是开发厌氧生物技术，将固体有机废物转化为高价值的化学品，如羧酸盐。羧酸盐是工业上重要的化学品，目前由不可再生的石化产品生产。因此，将有机废物厌氧转化为羧酸盐为有机废物管理建立了一个环境友好的过程，并将环境责任（有机废物）转化为加拿大的经济机会。目前用于将有机废物转化为羧酸盐的厌氧方法具有以下主要缺点：i）有机物质的低降解速率，ii）由于不合适的反应器设计而需要预处理和稀释有机物，以及iii）缺乏捕获羧酸盐生产期间产生的二氧化碳（CO2）的措施。拟议的研究将解决这些关键缺点，以促进可持续的废物衍生羧酸盐生产。申请人将追求三个关键目标，以实现这些目标：i）设计一种具有用于加速废物降解速率和羧酸盐生产内置技术的新型干发酵罐（DF），ii）开发一种微生物电合成（MES）系统，用于随后将DF中产生的CO2转化为羧酸盐，使有机废物的羧酸盐产量最大化，以及iii）对生物系统的基本理解和优化通过在DF和MES中添加微生物（微生物种群），进一步提高羧酸盐产量，并为可持续有机废物管理创造高效经济的解决方案。 该研究计划还将通过提供先进的分析技术和最先进的生物技术从废物中回收资源的实践培训，培养下一代可持续废物管理领域的高素质人员（HQP）。HQP将引领这一领域的创新，并将加拿大置于快速增长的清洁技术市场的前沿。