Breakdown of food waste by anaerobic fermentation and non-oxygen producing photosynthesis using a photosynthetic bacterium

Large volumes of food waste are produced by restaurants, hotels, etc generating problems in its collection, processing and disposal. Disposal as garbage increases the organic matter in landfills and leachates. The photosynthetic bacterium Rhodopseudomonas palustris (CGA 009) easily broke down food waste. R. palustris produces H-2 under anaerobic conditions and digests a very wide range of organic compounds. R. palustris reduced BOD by approximate to 70% and COD by approximate to 33%, starch, ammonia, nitrate, was removed but had little effect on reducing sugar or the total phosphorus, lipid, protein, total solid in a 7-day incubation. R. palustris produced a maximum of 80 ml H-2/g COD/day. A two-stage anaerobic digestion using yeast as the first stage, followed by a R. palustris digestion was tested but production of H-2 was low. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.