A researcher at the University of California Davis working in cooperation with an outside collaborator have developed a multi-stage process and system for treating organic waste materials. This process produces a high-quality compost derived from food waste and other organic materials while avoiding the environmental problems of traditional composting methods such as emissions of odors volatile organic compounds and other noxious gases. The combination of anaerobic hydrolysis anaerobic digestion and aerobic composting yields biogas as fuel and a stable organic material usable as a soil amendment. Technology Applications: Wide range of organic waste materials (i.e. agricultural wastes biosolids sludge cannery wastes green and wood wastes manures municipal solid waste (MSW) and other waste streams having organic content).
1) Use of low-cost hydrolysis vessels to inexpensively and rapidly break down the organic wastes for anaerobic digestion and composting and allow scale-up of the process to meet various waste treatment requirements 2) Reduction of emissions of noxious gases and volatile organic compounds 3) Lower energy requirements associated with the composting process