Title

Author(s)

Citation

Issued Date

URL

Rights

Feasibility of a food waste to energy system in high-rise

buildings

Tsang, Yuen-lam, Jenny;

Tsang, Y. J. []. (2013). Feasibility of a food waste to energy
system in high-rise buildings. (Thesis). University of Hong Kong,
Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b5099147
2013

http://hdl.handle.net/10722/194574

The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights)

and the right to use in future works.

Feasibility of a Food Waste to Energy

System in High-rise Buildings

By
Tsang Yuen Lam Jenny
2011921467

A Dissertation Submitted for the Master of Science in

Environmental Management
The University of Hong Kong
May 2013

Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my supervisor of this study, Dr.
Sam C.M. Hui, who gave me guidelines and suggestions of reference materials.
Without his guidance and comprehensive advices, this study cannot be finished. In
addition, I would like to thank my University department in providing me the
opportunity to explore such an interesting and meaningful topic. At last, I would like
to thanks for all respondents for the survey conducted in this study.

Disclosure Statement
This dissertation represents the authors own work conducted for the purposes of this
MSc in Environmental Management programme. All significant data or analysis used
in this dissertation from other sources including work the author may have carried
out for purposes other than for this programme has clearly been identified as such.
Signed: Tsang Yuen Lam Jenny
Printed Name (Date):

Tsang Yuen Lam Jenny (20 Sep 2013)

ii

Abstract
Hong Kong is currently generating more than 3000 tons of food waste every day
which generate air pollution problem and create odor nuisance to residents near
landfill site. It is critical for us to reduce waste generation at sources and find ways to
treat our food waste instead of solely rely on landfill. The aim of this paper is to
propose a food waste to energy system to be installed in high-rise buildings which
helps save our landfill space and utilize waste energy to generate electricity and heat
for building use. It is estimated that around one ton of food waste will be generated
from a domestic household building and hence the proposed food waste to energy
system is designed to have treatment capacity of 1 ton of food waste per day. A total
of 238.1 Nm3 of biogas, with 53.5% methane content can be generated from one ton
of food waste. With the use of combined heat and power (CHP) system, 465 kWh of
electricity and 732 kWh of heat can be generated. A survey is conducted to assess the
public view of the food waste problem in Hong Kong and the proposed food waste to
energy system. It is found that most of the respondent agrees the proposed food
waste to energy is a good mean to tackle food waste problem in Hong Kong and
support to install such system in high-rise buildings. A life cycle assessment is
carried out to compare the environmental impact of landfilling 1 ton of food waste
and treating 1 ton of food waste with the proposed system. It is found that the carbon
emission (CO2 equivalent) of the proposed system is 1112.6 kg less than that of
landfilling, i.e. the proposed system can help to save 406.1 ton of carbon dioxide
emission a year which equals to planting of 17,656 trees. The economic viability of
installing the proposed system is evaluated. The capital investment and the operating
cost for the proposed system are estimated to be HK$3,400,000 and HK$ 170,000
per year respectively. As the proposed system can bring in revenue of HK$ 763,986
per year, the internal rate of return (IRR) and payback period of the system is 15%
and 6 years respectively. Limitations and difficulties encountered for the installation
of the proposed system are discussed and finally suggestions are made for the
successful installation of the proposed system and several ways to reduce food waste
from sources are also suggested for both commercial sectors and the government.

iii

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements------------------------------------------------------------------

Disclosure Statement---------------------------------------------------------------

ii

Abstract------------------------------------------------------------------------------

iii

List of Tables------------------------------------------------------------------------

viii

List of Figures-----------------------------------------------------------------------

viii

List of Abbreviations----------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1. Objective of the Study-------------------------------------------------------

1.2. Structure of this Dissertation------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2

Literature Review

2.1. Overview of Food Waste Problem in Hong Kong------------------------

2.2. Current Food Waste Management System in Hong Kong --------------

2.2.1.

Composting---------------------------------------------------------

2.2.2.

Animal Feed--------------------------------------------------------

2.3. Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Technologies-------------------------------------

2.3.1.

Thermal Treatment Option---------------------------------------

2.3.2.

Direct use in combustion-----------------------------------------

10

2.3.3.

Anaerobic Digestion----------------------------------------------

10

2.4. Modern Food Waste to Energy Application in Overseas----------------

11

2.4.1.

Food Waste to Energy Application in Canada-----------------

12

2.4.2.

Food Waste to Energy Application in Japan-------------------

13

2.5. Significance of this Research ----------------------------------------------

14

Chapter 3

Methodology

3.1. Literature Review------------------------------------------------------ ------

15

3.2. Survey-------------------------------------------------------------------------

15

3.3. System Design----------------------------------------------------------------

15

3.4. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) --------------------------------------------

16

3.5. Evaluation of IRR and payback period -----------------------------------

16

Chapter 4

Survey Result

4.1. Survey Objective-------------------------------------------------------------

17

4.2. Results-------------------------------------------------------------------------

17
iv

4.2.1.

Public Awareness of Food Waste Problem---------------------

17

4.2.2.

Managing Everyday Food Waste--------------------------------

19

4.2.3.

Food Waste to Energy System-----------------------------------

19

4.3. Summary-----------------------------------------------------------------------

21

Chapter 5

Technical Feasibility

5.1. Anaerobic Digestion (AD) --------------------------------------------------

23

5.2. Description of Process--------------------------------------------------------

23

5.2.1.

Hydrolysis-----------------------------------------------------------

24

5.2.2.

Acidogenesis--------------------------------------------------------

24

5.2.3.

Acetogensis----------------------------------------------------------

24

5.2.4.

Methanogenesis-----------------------------------------------------

24

5.3. Factors Affecting Anaerobic Digestion Process---------------------------

25

5.3.1.

pH---------------------------------------------------------------------

25

5.3.2.

Temperature----------------------------------------------------------

25

5.3.3.

Retention Time (RT) -----------------------------------------------

26

5.3.4.

Organic Loading Rate (OLR) -------------------------------------

27

5.3.5.

Substrate Characteristics--------------------------------------------

27

5.4. Application of Anaerobic Digestion-----------------------------------------

27

5.5. Estimation of Biogas Generated from Food Waste by AD---------------- 28

5.6. End Use of Biogas--------------------------------------------------------------

29

5.7. Food Waste to Energy System------------------------------------------------- 30

5.7.1.

Process Description--------------------------------------------------

31

5.7.2.

Equipment Sizing----------------------------------------------------

32

5.7.3.

Source Separation and Collection System-----------------------

36

5.7.4.

Treatment of Residue-----------------------------------------------

37

5.8. Application and Effectiveness of Proposed System-----------------------

38

5.8.1.

Domestic Building--------------------------------------------------

38

5.8.2.

Commercial Building-----------------------------------------------

39

Chapter 6

Environmental and Social Impact

6.1. Life Cycle Assessment---------------------------------------------------------

42

6.1.1.

Landfill----------------------------------------------------------------

43

6.1.2.

Food Waste to Energy System-------------------------------------

46

6.2. Safety Considerations----------------------------------------------------------- 48

6.2.1.

Classification of Hazardous Location-----------------------------

48
v

6.2.2.

Safety Features of the Proposed System--------------------------

49

6.3. Odor and Hygiene Considerations--------------------------------------------- 50

Chapter 7

Economical Assessment

7.1. Cost of Proposed System------------------------------------------------------

51

7.1.1.

Capital Investment---------------------------------------------------

51

7.1.2.

Operating Cost and Maintenance Cost----------------------------

52

7.2. Cost Saving / Revenue---------------------------------------------------------

52

7.2.1.

Disposal Cost and Landfill Management Cost-------------------

52

7.2.2.

Energy avoided from the Grid-------------------------------------

53

7.2.3.

Carbon Credit--------------------------------------------------------

54

7.2.4.

Compost Produced--------------------------------------------------

54

7.3. Evaluation of Economic Viability--------------------------------------------

55

Chapter 8

Discussions

8.1. Feasibility of Food Waste to Energy System-------------------------------

56

8.2. Limitation and Difficulties----------------------------------------------------

57

8.2.1.

Investment and Management of the Facilities-------------------

57

8.2.2.

Utilization of Energy Generated-----------------------------------

57

8.2.3.

Encourage Generation of Food Waste----------------------------- 58

8.2.4.

Government Approval----------------------------------------------

59

8.2.5.

Difficulties Encountered in this Study----------------------------

59

8.3. Suggestions of Food Waste Management in Hong Kong------------------- 60

8.3.1. Food Waste to Energy System---------------------------------------- 60
8.3.2.

Composting-----------------------------------------------------------

8.3.3.

Food Waste Reduction----------------------------------------------- 62

8.3.3.1. Commercial-----------------------------------------------

60
62

8.3.3.2. Government Policy--------------------------------------- 62

Chapter 9

Conclusions

9.1. Literature Review and Survey------------------------------------------------

64

9.2. Feasibility of Proposed System-----------------------------------------------

64

9.3. Limitation and Difficulties----------------------------------------------------- 64

9.4. Suggestions------------------------------------------------------------------------ 65
9.5. Further Studies------------------------------------------------------------------- 65
References-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 66
vi

Appendix
1

Questionnaire

Estimation of Biogas Generated from Food Waste by AD

IRR and Payback Evaluation

vii

List of Tables
Table 5.1

Categories of shops in APM

40

Table 7.1

CLP Tariff of 2013

53

Table 7.2

Town Gas Tariff of 2013

53

List of Figures
Figure 2.1

Composition of MSW disposed to Landfill in 2011

Figure 2.2

Food waste generated in Hong Kong from 2006 to 2011

Figure 2.3

Three strategic landfills in Hong Kong

Figure 2.4

The block flow diagram of the proposed OWTF

Figure 2.5

Composting food

Figure 2.6

Typical process flow of waste incineration plant

Figure 2.7

Dried waste food pellet

10

Figure 2.8

Typical set up for anaerobic digestion system

11

Figure 2.9

Proposed AD system in Concordia University

12

Figure 2.10

Proposed biogas system of Takenaka Building

13

Figure 4.1

Amount of food waste produced in Hong Kong everyday

18

Figure 4.2

Awareness of Hong Kong food waste management system

18

Figure 4.3

Percentage of food finish

19

Figure 4.4

Awareness of food waste to energy system

20

Figure 4.5

Concerns on proposed food waste to energy system

20

Figure 4.6

Choice of building for proposed food waste to energy system

21

Figure 5.1

Anaerobic digestion process flow diagram

23

Figure 5.2

Proposed food waste to energy system

31

Figure 5.3

The ratio of specific gas production to maximum specific gas

33

production (B/Bo) versus hydraulic retention time, as a function

of temperature
Figure 5.4

Digester sizing process flow chart

34

Figure 5.5

Vacuum food waste collection system

37
viii

Figure 5.6

39

Figure 5.7

Floor plan of Kwai Yuet House and area for proposed system
installation
Floor plan of APM shopping mall

Figure 6.1

Life cycle diagram of landfill

43

Figure 6.2

Life cycle diagram of proposed food waste to energy system

43

Figure 6.3

Existing MSW collection system in Hong Kong

44

Figure 6.4

Food waste transportation route from Kwai Yuen House to

45

41

SENT Landfill
Figure 6.5

Hazardous locations identification

49

ix

List of Abbreviations
AD

Anaerobic Digestion

BD

Building Department

CDM

Clean Development Mechanism

CER

Certified Emission Reduction

CH4

Methane

CHP

Combined Heat and Power

C&I

Commercial and Industrial

C/N

Carbon / Nitrogen

CNG

Compressed Natural Gas

COD

Chemical Oxygen Demand

CO2

Carbon Dioxide

EMSD

Electrical and Mechanical Services Department

EPA

Environmental Protection Agency

EPD

Environmental Protection Department

EU ETS

EU Emission Trading Scheme

FEHD

Food and Environmental Hygiene Department

GSO

Gas Safety Office

GWP

Global Warming Potential

HRT

Hydraulic Retention Time

HVAC

Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning

IRR

Internal Rate of Return

KPI

Key Performance Indicator

LCA

Life Cycle Assessment

LCFA

Lipids and Long Chain Fatty Acids

LEL

Lower Explosive Limit

LNG

Liquefied Natural Gas

MSW

Municipal Solid Waste

NENT

North East New Territories

NGO

Non-governmental Organization

NIMBY

Not in My Back Yard

OLR

Organic Loading Rate

x

OWTF

Organic Waste Treatment Facilities

RT

Retention Time

RTS

Refuse Transfer Station

SENT

South East New Territories

SRT

Solids Retention Time

TS

Total Solid

UEL

Upper Explosive Limit

VFA

Volatile Fatty Acid

VOC

Volatile Organic Compound

VS

Volatile Solid

WENT

West New Territories

WTE

Waste to Energy

xi

Chapter 1 Introduction
Waste problem is a critical issue in Hong Kong. People in Hong Kong generate 1.36
kg Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) every day, which is 36% and 76% higher than that
of Taipei and Seoul (EB, 2013). Although more than 40% of waste is recycled, disposal
of waste is still mainly relying on landfills (GovHK, 2012). With increasing waste
production every year (Chi,1997), the current 3 strategic landfill sites located in
South-East New Territories(SENT), North-East New Territories(NENT) and West
New Territories(WENT) will be full by 2014, 2016 and 2018, respectively (EPD,
2011b).

Food waste accounts for about 30% of the total MSW generated. Currently, all

the food waste generated is disposed into landfill, which leads to the rapid depletion
of our already limited landfill space and imposing a severe burden on the local
environment. As the nature of food waste is putrescible, with the humidity climate of
Hong Kong, emissions from decomposing food not only have a serious negative
impact on air quality, the odor produced during landfill create nuisance to the
residence nearby. In addition, when food waste is being decomposed in the landfill,
significant quantities of landfill gases will be released which contains mainly
methane and carbon dioxide that capture and retain heat in the atmosphere. Therefore,
there is an immediate need for us to reduce waste at sources and find other ways to
treat our food waste instead of solely relying on landfill.
Collection and transportation of food waste generated from different household and
commercial and industrial (C&I) sectors to the treatment unit may cause a large
amount of energy loss which may decrease the efficiency of the food waste treatment
facilities. It will be more efficient if we can consume the food waste in situ and
utilize it as energy. With the increasing concern on energy efficiency in high-rise
buildings and the promotion on sustainable buildings design, a food waste to energy
application can be a solution to tackle the food waste problem as well as increasing
the building efficiency. As buildings account for 89% of electricity consumption in
Hong Kong, we have great potential to improve energy efficiency and reduce our
greenhouse gas emissions by promoting energy efficiency in buildings. High-rise
building is chosen as the target for installing food waste to energy systems. It is
because high-rise building is densely populated, it can generate sufficient amount of
1|Page

food waste for the feedstock of food waste to energy system. Also, food waste can be
easily collected through a centralized piping collection system compared to low-rise
buildings and standalone houses.

1.1 Objective of the Study

The objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of installing a food waste to
energy system in high-rise buildings in Hong Kong. To evaluate the technical
feasibility, the amount of food waste generated from a building will be estimated. A
food waste to energy system will then be designed with appropriate capacity and
space required for the installation will be studied. The economic impact, social and
environmental impact as well as limitations of installing the proposed system will
also be studied.

1.2 Structure of this Dissertation

This dissertation contains 9 Chapters. Beside this chapter, Chapter 2 is the literature
review which describe the food waste problem in Hong Kong and technology
available for food waste to energy system. Chapter 3 describes the Methodology used
for this study. Chapter 4 described the Survey conducted that accesses the public
views of installing the proposed food waste to energy system inside high-rise
buildings and their concerns on it. Chapter 5 includes a detailed description and
design of the food waste to energy system and estimates the technical feasibility of
installing such a system inside high-rise buildings. Application examples for
domestic buildings and commercial buildings are identified. Social and
environmental impacts of the proposed system will be studied in Chapter 6. Chapter
7 assesses the economic impacts of the system by estimating the investment cost and
operating cost of the system and the revenue or saving obtained from the system.
Chapter 8 will discuss the limitation and difficulties of installing the proposed food
waste to energy system. Finally, Chapter 9 is the conclusion of the dissertation.

2|Page

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1.

Overview of Food Waste Problem in Hong Kong

Urban waste generation and disposal has become a major global issue. Hong Kong is
currently generating about six million tons of MSW every year with half of it being
putrescible waste. Putrescible waste composes of food waste, yard waste and other
biodegradable materials. Handling putrescible waste is a primary challenge in waste
management as it causes obnoxious odors and is capable of attracting or providing
food for birds or animals which give rise to environmental and public health
concerns.
MSW Composition 2011

21%
Glass
Metals
Paper

24%

Plastics
Putrescibles

50%

2%
3%

Fig.2.1 Composition of MSW disposed to landfill in 2011(EPD, 2011c)

Food waste is the main composition of putrescible waste generated in Hong Kong. It
has been reported earlier that a person in Hong Kong generates on average half
kilogram of food waste each day, which contributed to about 30% of daily solid
waste generated in Hong Kong (HKSAR Government, 2010). Households and C&I share
about 70% and 30% of the food waste generation in Hong Kong.

The household

problem is not difficult to understand as people always prepare excessive food,

especially Chinese people. The problem for restaurants is that they have to prepare
excessive food every day in order to satisfy the needs of all customers. But all the
excessive prepared food has to be disposed of every day for hygienic reasons.
Moreover, during the food preparation process, many foods are disposed only
3|Page

because they are not good looking.

A research done about food waste generated from a restaurant shows that about 70%
of food waste generated from a restaurant is actually disposed in the kitchen during
cooking process (Chan, 2011). The other 30% is what customer left over in their meal.
The food waste problem is even more serious in restaurant providing wedding
banquet. It is our Chinese culture that at least eight dishes have to be served in the
wedding banquet for a good sign of luck. Most of the dishes are actually only half
consumed. Restaurants offering buffet face the same problem.
Another source of food waste is from supermarket. As supermarkets have very
straight control on food quality, all food expired or even closing to expiry date are
dumped every day. According to a research done by Friends of the Earth, the four
supermarkets in Hong Kong produced 87 tons of food waste every day, which is
about 10% of food waste produced from C&I sector (Foo, 2012). Below is the graph
showing food waste generated in Hong Kong from 2006 to 2011.

Food Waste in Hong Kong

4000

42.00%

3500
3000

40.00%
727

823
847

2500

964

840

1056

38.00%
36.00%

2000
1500
1000

34.00%
2473

2444

2148

2316

2397

2528

32.00%

500

30.00%

28.00%
2006

2007

Domestic

2008

2009

2010

2011

per day
C&ITonnesPercentage
of Total MSW disposed

Fig.2.2 Food waste generated in Hong Kong from 2006 to 2011 (EPD, 2011c)

The graph shows that the amount of food waste generated is quite stable in recent
years but the percentage of food waste of total MSW generated disposed is
increasing. That can be explained by the increasing MSW recycle rate in recent
years.

4|Page

Food wastes are putrescible wastes which require careful handling and disposal.
Otherwise nuisance to the environment will be caused. Currently all food wastes are
disposed in landfill. The disposal of about 3,000 tons of food waste put immense
pressure on landfills. With increasing waste production every year, the current three
strategic landfills namely SENT landfill, NENT landfill and WENT landfill will be
full by 2014, 2016 and 2018 respectively (EPD, 2005). Due to the lack of available
land for the construction of new landfills, it is an urgent task for the Government to
develop alternative treatments for food waste.

Fig.2.3 Three strategic landfills in Hong Kong (EPD, 2010)

To tackle the food waste problem effectively, a multi-pronged approach should be

adopted including waste reduction and effective waste treatment. There are many
different kinds of technologies to manage food waste developed by researchers and
business sectors. Government is also playing an active role on this by developing a
modern Organic Waste Treatment Facility (OWTF) at Siu Ho Wan for food waste
treatment (See Figure 2.4). Biological treatment technology is adopted to turn
source-separated food waste into useful resources including compost and
biogas. This OWTF, which could handle about 200 tons of food waste everyday, is
expected to commission by 2015 (EPD, 2012b).

5|Page

Fig. 2.4 The block flow diagram of the proposed OWTF (EPD, 2011a)

The proposed OWTF can only caters for commercial and industrial food waste which
contributes to one third of the total food waste generated as collection of domestic
food waste is a difficult task. Centralizing collection system for domestic buildings
may help to solve this problem, and food waste produced from domestic household
can be collected and transferred to energy, which increase the effectiveness of this
technology.

2.2. Current Food Waste Management System in HK

Other than disposing food waste to landfill, small amount of food waste are collected
and treated to useful products by private groups and social enterprises.
2.2.1

Composting

Food waste, which contains a high amount of organic matter, is a very suitable raw
material for composting. Basically composting is a natural biodegradation process
for converting organic matter such as human and livestock wastes, and plant residues
into a stabilized organic fertilizer or soil conditioner. This provides a means not just
to treat the waste but also to conserve the material cycling in an urban ecosystem.
The compost derived from food waste contains a good balance of nutrients for plant
6|Page

growth and the high organic content can improve the physical properties, especially
for degraded agricultural soils under the continuous application of inorganic
fertilizer.(Wong, 2003)

Fig. 2.5 Composting food (How to compost.org, 2010)

To gain experience and information on collection of source separated food waste,

Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has developed the Pilot Composting
Plant at Kowloon Bay Waste Recycling Center in 2008 (EPD, 2012a). The total
treatment capacity of the plant is 500 tons of food waste feedstock per year and about
100 tons of compost products will be produced. The Pilot Plant was first used to treat
the food waste generated at the Olympic and Paralympic Equestrian Event venues in
August and September 2008. This was followed by a 1-year trial operation for
recycling of source-separated food waste generated from C& I sectors including
hotels, restaurants and catering service providers. The compost product from the
plant could be used for landscaping, vegetable and fruit production.
Other than government, social enterprises such as green collar Social Enterprise and
Hong Kong Food Waste Recycling Social Enterprise compost food waste in the
community and delivered the product to local organic farm (Lau, 2011). There is also
some private housing estates undertake on-site treatment of food waste in housing
estates and encourage households to separate domestic food waste at source (ECF,
2013).

7|Page

2.2.2

Animal Feed

Many people may underestimate the agricultural and animal feeding land use in
Hong Kong. Local company Kowloon Biotechnology is the only factory in HK got
the license from EPD to collect food waste and convert it to fish feed and animal
feed. The factory can process 50 tons of food waste to fish feed every day. The
founder of Kowloon Biotechnology claimed that there are still 40,000 pigs in Hong
Kong nowadays, consuming 5kg of food each. If food waste is used as animal feed,
200 tons of food waste can be consumed. Together with fish feed, all 3000 tons of
food waste generated every day can be converted to animal feed (Chan, 2011).
However, there are hygiene and health problems aroused from feeding pigs with food
waste. Some European countries and UK have already forbidden feeding animal
using food waste.

2.3 WTE Technologies Available for Treating Food Waste

2.3.1

Thermal Treatment Option

Thermal treatment is a process using high temperature to break down waste.

Common thermal treatment processes for treating waste includes incineration,
gasification and pyrolysis. Incineration is a mature technology that involves the
combustion and conversion of MSW into heat and energy. Waste is burnt in the
excess air, flus gas and ash are generated, and heat energy release can be recovered to
generate energy from waste materials. Incinerators are able to reduce the volume of
solid wastes by 85% (EPD, 2006), which makes them popular in countries that have
limited territory for landfills. However, the high moisture content of food waste and
the possibility of emission of dioxin make incineration unattractive. Figure 2.6 shows
the typical process of waste incineration plant. Waste is burnt in a furnace and the
heat generated is used to raise steam. The steam generated will be used to drive the
turbine generator to produce electricity that can be used locally or transferred to grid.

8|Page

Fig. 2.6 Typical process flow of waste incineration plant (Gohlke, 2010)

Gasification and pyrolysis are similar to incineration. The main difference is that
they use less oxygen in the process that combustion cannot take place. Gasification is
burning of waste at high temperature (>700C) in limited air while pyrolysis is the
thermochemical decomposition of organic material at high temperature in the
absence of oxygen (Pyrolysis & gasification, 2012). In both processes, waste is broken
down to create gas, solid and liquid residues. The gas produced is called syngas,
which consists of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Syngas has calorific value, so it
can be burnt directly in gas engine to generate electricity or used as a feedstock for
various petrochemical and refining industries like producing methanol and oil
products. Gasification was more beneficial as pyrolysis requires large investment, but
longer time is needed to finish the gasification process.
There are some limitations on treating food waste with thermal processes.
Homogenous feedstock is required for the processes to work effectively (ISWA, 2013).
However, the composition of food waste varies and the reliability and effectiveness
on treating food waste are questionable. Also, wastes that are high in moisture
content such as food waste that typically got 70% moisture content generally perform
poorly in thermal systems because a large portion of the energy input is wasted in
driving off water (CIWEM, 2011). Public also got many concerns on thermal treatment
options especially for incineration. Ash and other gas pollutants will be produced as
by-product of the processes that may have adverse effects on health of the residence
nearby. There are also worries that the treatment process will undermine recycling as
9|Page

the process requires steady stream of waste.

2.3.2

Direct Use in Combustion

Caton et al. (2010) suggested an alternative food waste management technology that
is direct energy recovery from food waste by combustion. Food has significant
chemical energy that could be released directly by combustion. Water from food
waste should be moved and dry food waste can then be pelletized using a pellet
machine. His study showed that food waste could be successfully processed and
pelletized for use in a typical residential pellet stove. However, only stove with
specific design can burn the pellet and the application may be limited.

Fig. 2.7 Dried waste food pellet (Caton et al., 2010)

2.3.3

Anaerobic Digestion (AD)

During the past decades, anaerobic digestion of organic matter has been reported as a
suitable method for treatment of organic waste and production of energy from
combustion of biogas. Anaerobic digestion is a process in which microorganisms
break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen. The process is widely
used to treat wastewater sludge and industrial and farm wastes because it provides
volume and mass reduction of the input material. Anaerobic digestion is considered a
renewable energy sources because the methane-rich biogas produced is suitable for
energy production and can replace fossil fuels. Additionally, the nutrient-rich solids
and liquids left after digestion can be used as fertilizer.
The advantage of using anaerobic digestion to treat organic waste rather than
composting it is that anaerobic digestion produces biogas with a high percentage of
methane which can be used as fuel whereas composting produces mostly carbon
10 | P a g e

dioxide which has no energy value (Lai, Ke & Chung, 2009). Also, anaerobic digestion is
more robust than composting, as it also prefers cooked and oily food waste to be
digested where composting does not (House, 1981). Biogas generated from anaerobic
digestion, which mainly consists of methane, can be used to generate electricity and
heat. AD is adopted in the proposed OWTF to generate biogas and electricity.

Fig. 2.8 Typical set up for anaerobic digestion system (Anaerobic digestion One way forward, 2007)

However, AD may not be cost effective as the capital cost and maintenance of
equipment to process, dehydrate and properly and safely burn or gasify food waste
can be huge. Also, residential use would require a compact size appliance that
enables convenient processing and combustion of food waste.

2.4 Modern Food Waste to Energy Application in Overseas

Although various technologies are available to manage food waste and convert them
into useable energy, the project scale is usually small and can only cater certain
amount of waste generated. Also, to collect and transport food waste generated from
different households and C&I sectors to the treatment unit, a large amount of energy
will be lost which may decrease the efficiency of the food waste to energy system if a
life cycle assessment (LCA) is concerned (Bernstad & la Cour Jansen, 2012). It will be
more efficient if we can consume the food waste in situ and utilize it as energy.
With the increasing concern on energy efficiency in high-rise buildings and the
11 | P a g e

promotion on sustainable buildings design, a new food waste to energy application is

suggested. A food waste collection and treatment system can be installed inside a
high-rise building to generate biogas which can be utilized for water heating or
electricity generation with the building. A stand-alone food waste to energy system
not only helps to reduce the amount of waste to be disposed to landfill, but also save
the waste transportation cost and reduces the use of fossil fuel for energy consumed
in high-rise buildings. Two examples of food waste to energy system application in
high-rise buildings are discussed below.
2.4.1

Food Waste to Energy Application in Canada

Various studies are carried out to develop food waste to energy systems in urban
environment. A small scale anaerobic digestion system design is proposed in Canada,
which converts food waste collected in Concordia University to biogas and uses the
biogas generated for heating system inside campus (Curry & Pillary, 2012). The
proposed plan involves collecting 100 165 annual tones of organic wastes from
various locations on the downtown campus including one large cafeteria, a small
kitchen, and several coffee shops. The collected food waste will be fed into a
shredder to produce small particles. Water is added for hydrolysis, the first step of
anaerobic digestion, which gives out unpleasant odors. The resulting slurry is then
pumped into the digester to generate biogas. Below is the schematic diagram of the
proposed AD system.

Fig. 2.9 Proposed AD system in Concordia University (Curry & Pillary, 2012)

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The produced biogas will be used to heat a 10 kW biogas boiler for hot water
generation. This application is a pilot scale project to demonstrate the use of
small-scale digestion in urban buildings to deal with the organic waste produced on
site is a way to save on transportation costs and reducing the amount of waste sent to
landfill. With this successful pilot, it is believed that more food waste to energy
system can be built in urban high-rise buildings in near future.
2.4.2

Food Waste to Energy Application in Japan

Commercial building is another source of food waste and can be a choice to develop
the in situ food waste to energy building. An example has been seen in Japan.
Takenaka Corporation has developed the Urban Biogas System, which produces
biogas from food waste or kitchen wastewater as an energy source in complex
buildings (Japan for sustainability, 2010). There will be a disposer room on each floor of
the building. The raw garbage will be pumped to the biogas system through pipeline
built inside the building. The system will then divide the raw garbage, kitchen
wastewater and sludge and feeds the solid constituent into the fermentation tank to
produce biogas. The biogas produced is refined and mixed with city gas and finally
utilized by gas engines, boilers and other gas consuming machinery to produce heat
and electricity inside the high-rise building. The building is now under construction
and is aiming to open in 2014. Fig. 2.10 shows the schematic diagram of the
proposed biogas system inside a high-rise building.

Fig.2. 10 Proposed biogas system of Takenaka Building (Japan for sustainability, 2010)

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2.5 Significance of this Research

From the examples mentioned above, anaerobic digestion is found to be a suitable
technology to turn food waste in to energy and it is possible to install a food waste to
energy system inside high-rise buildings. Furthermore, OWTF proposed by the
government which treats 500 tons of food waste per day also adopt anaerobic
digestion technology. This indicate that the government identifies food waste as an
important issue in Hong Kong waste management policy and supports the anaerobic
digestion as a food waste to energy technology. However, 500 tons are still a small
amount comparing to the total food waste generated every day which is more than
3000 tons a day. There are still lots of room for other parties to propose food waste
treatment installation.
In view of the energy required for collection and transportation of waste for
centralized treatment unit, in-situ treatment of waste is an option to increase the
effectiveness of the treatment facilities. Installing a food waste to energy system in
high-rise buildings is widely studied overseas and some pilot projects are under
construction as described in earlier sections. As there are currently no similar studies
and application in Hong Kong, this study can help explore the feasibility of installing
food waste to energy system in high-rise buildings with anaerobic digestion
technology and examine the benefits that can be obtained from the proposed system.

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Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Literature Review
In this study, literature review will be conducted in several areas. Firstly, the
overview picture of food waste problem in Hong Kong will be reviewed from the
food waste statistical data obtained from EPD waste monitoring reports. The current
food waste management system in Hong Kong will then be reviewed. Food waste is
not separated from our MSW and all food waste generated is dumped into landfill.
Only small amount of food waste generated are collected by some private sectors and
non-government organizations (NGOs) for composting and producing animal feed.
To propose a food waste to energy system, various wastes to energy technologies will
be studied to identify a suitable technology to convert food waste to energy. Overseas
applications of food waste to energy system will also be reviewed including
examples in Japan and Canada.

3.2 Survey
A survey will be conducted to assess the public awareness of food waste problems in
Hong Kong, the public understanding of waste to energy technologies and finally, the
public views of installing a food waste to energy system in high-rise buildings. The
survey will be conducted in the form of an on-line questionnaire (See Appendix). The
questionnaire is divided into 2 parts. The first part is about the basic information of
respondent and its awareness towards food waste problems in Hong Kong. The
proposed food waste to energy system in high-rise buildings are described in the
second part and views of installing such system will be assessed in the second part of
the questionnaire.

3.3 System Design

To design a food waste to energy system to be installed in high-rise buildings, the
amount of food waste generated in a single building will be estimated. For simplicity,
domestic buildings will be used as the design base. After the amount of food waste
generated is known, the biogas generated from it through anaerobic digestion can be

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estimated by theoretical equations and experimental result from literature. The

treatment capacity of the system will then be identified. Sizes required for different
equipment involved will then be estimated. The public views collected from the
survey regarding the installation of food waste to energy system in high-rise
buildings will be considered and appropriate measures and equipment will be added
to the system to address the public concerns.

3.4 Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)

To understand the environmental impact of the proposed food waste to energy system,
life cycle assessment will be carried out. Life cycle assessment is an effective
environmental tool dealing with the complex interaction between the environment
and a product or activity. System boundary covered from initial food waste
generation at a household to its final disposal. The LCA will focus on two areas, food
waste transportation and food waste treatment. The global warming potential (GWP)
will be used as an indicator to evaluate environmental impact of the proposed system
compared to landfilling food waste. The amount of greenhouse gases which
contribute to the global warming will be converted to the equivalent amount of
carbon dioxide.

3.5 Evaluation of IRR and Payback Period

The economic viability of the proposed food waste to energy system in high-rise
buildings will also be studied. The cost of equipment, construction as well as the
operating and maintenance costs of the system will be estimated based on overseas
reference. The energy and compost generated from the system as well as other
intangible cost associated will be estimated as the revenue or cost saving of this
system. The Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and payback period of installing the
proposed system will then be calculated to assess the economic viability of the
proposed system.

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Chapter 4

Survey

4.1 Survey Objective

The objectives of the survey are to access the public awareness of food waste
problems in Hong Kong, the public understanding of waste to energy technologies
and finally, the public views of installing a food waste to energy system in high-rise
buildings.
The survey was carried from February to March 2013 for 2 months, in the form of an
on-line questionnaire. The questionnaire is divided into 2 parts. The first part is about
the basic information of respondents and their awareness towards food waste
problems in Hong Kong. The proposed food waste to energy system in high-rise
buildings are described in the second part and views of installing such system are
studied in the second part of the questionnaire. Please see Appendix 1 for the sample
of the questionnaire. As the content of the survey is a bit technical, the target group
of the respondent is people with technical background or professionals. 60 responses
are received and majority of respondents are aged between 24 to 35 years old with
degree or higher education level.

4.2 Results
4.2.1

Public Awareness of Food Waste Problem

More than 95% of respondents think that food waste problem is serious in Hong
Kong. Surprisingly, only about 30% of respondents know the amount of food waste
produced in Hong Kong every day, which is more than 3000 tons per day.

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Fig. 4.1 Amount of food waste produced in Hong Kong every day

More than 95% of respondents think current government policy is not sufficient to
tackle food waste problem in Hong Kong. The awareness towards existing or
proposed food waste management system, namely Organic Waste Treatment
Facilities, Kowloon Bay Pilot Composting Plant and Integrated Waste Treatment
Facilities are being asked, 14% of respondents are not aware of the three mentioned
facilities at all. The most common system is Kowloon Bay Pilot Composing Plant,
with 33% of respondent aware of it.

Fig. 4.2 Awareness of Hong Kong food waste management system

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4.2.2

Managing Everyday Food Waste

Food waste management practices of respondents are being asked. 43% of the
respondents cannot finish all dishes when dining outside and 75% out of that can
finish above 80% of the dish. However, only 8% of respondents will separate food
waste from their everyday waste.

Fig.4. 3 Percentage of food finish

Although there are many volunteer food waste recycle / composting programs held
by green groups or private public housing estates, it is still not very popular in Hong
Kong. Only 7% have participated in food waste recycle / composting programs,
which is mainly school and estate programs. Nearly 30% of respondent got facilities
to separate refuse in their housing estate, but only 1 respondent out of that got food
waste separating facilities.
4.2.3

Food Waste to Energy System

The awareness of different food waste to energy technologies is being asked. The
most popular technology is anaerobic digestion, with 55% of respondents aware of it.
Combustion, gasification and pyrolysis shares similar percentage of awareness from
respondents.

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Fig. 4.4 Awareness of food waste to energy system

Regarding the concern on the proposed food waste to energy system, hygiene, odor
and safety aspects are found to be the top three concerns in the survey. More than
half of the respondents considers hygiene and odor as their main concern towards
such system. Cost, space occupied and effectiveness of the system is also concerned.
About half of the respondents think if energy recovered from the system can
achieve10% - 30% of the building total energy input, the investment of the system
will be justified.

Fig. 4.5 Concerns on proposed food waste to energy system

Hotel and domestic building are found generally more suitable or acceptable to
install the food waste to energy system with over 60% of respondents support.
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Government building and commercial buildings got similar percentage of support.

Fig. 4.6 Choice of building for proposed food waste to energy system

For the effectiveness of the proposed food waste to energy system, 70% of
respondents agreed the proposed system is a good means to tackle food waste
problem. The remaining respondent think composting is a better means to tackle food
waste problem in Hong Kong compared to the proposed food waste to energy system.
Although about 70% of respondents agree the proposed system is a good means to
tackle food waste problem in Hong Kong, it does not mean that they are willing to
have such system installed in their own building that is commonly known as the Not
In My Back Yard (NIMBY) principle. Surprisingly, about 86% agree to install such
system in the building they are living or in the building that their office are located.
Apart from tackling food waste problem, cost of the proposed system is another
important issue. 40% of respondents agree to pay extra to buy a flat with proposed
system installed in the building and 64% of respondents agree to pay more
maintenance fee for the housing estate to maintain the proposed food waste to energy
system.

4.3 Summary
In summary, public awareness of Hong Kong food waste problem is low. Although

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almost all respondents think food waste problem in Hong Kong is serious, but they
are not quite clear about the real situation, the current government management
system and the technology available for treating food waste. The public participation
of food waste recycling or composting program is insufficient.
On the other hand, most of the respondent agrees the proposed food waste to energy
is a good mean to tackle food waste problem in Hong Kong and support to install
such system in high-rise buildings. Hygiene, odor and safety aspects are the major
concerns from respondents so we have to further assess the impact of the system to
these aspects in later chapters. The cost for installing the proposed system and
maintenance are also concerned. Respondents suggested that financial incentive such
as government subsidy is important for successful installation, as it may be difficult
to justify the investment with the amount of energy produced. The economic
feasibility of the proposed system will be discussed in details in Chapter 7.
Besides questions discussed above, respondents gave some general suggestions on
food waste management of Hong Kong. It is suggested that waste reduction is far
more important than waste treatment. The most efficient ways to reduce food waste
generation is through education and promotion to increase public awareness of food
waste problem in Hong Kong. Policy and legislation set up like imposing food waste
charging scheme and compulsory source separation for food waste are also suggested
to reduce food waste generation in Hong Kong.

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Chapter 5

Technical Feasibility

5.1 Anaerobic Digestion (AD)

Anaerobic digestion is a well-known technology for waste water treatment and is
also used in agricultural farms in overseas for the treatment of animal manure. It is a
natural biological process occurring in anaerobic environment. It is based on
temperature and input substrate, different strains of specialized bacteria break down
complex chains of organic materials in the absence of oxygen. Food waste is a
suitable input substrate for anaerobic digestion. If the food waste generated in the
city were well source separated, anaerobic digestion can provide a critical solution to
the growing garbage problems while at the same time reducing external energy
requirements and greenhouse gas emission.

5.2 Description of Process

Anaerobic digestion is a stepwise process with four consecutive steps: Hydrolysis,
Acidogenesis, Acetogensis and Methanogenesis. The last stage of the process,
Methanogenesis, is where the biogas is produced and it contains 50-70% methane
that can be burned as fuel to replace natural gas. Fig. 5.1 shows a simplified diagram
of the anaerobic digestion process.

Fig. 5.1 Anaerobic digestion process flow diagram (Serna, 2009)

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5.2.1

Hydrolysis

Hydrolysis is the first stage of the process that breaks down the complex organic
materials into their constituent parts (Seadi et al., 2008). Carbohydrates, proteins and
fats are broken down into simpler organic constituents, sugars, amino acids, and
long-chain fatty acids, respectively. For complex wastes like food wastes that are
very highly biodegradable, it is better to separate the hydrolysis phase from the rest
of process as it is often the most volatile and the acids produced can affect the pH
and the stability of the process and can also produced very unpleasant odors.
5.2.2

Acidogenesis

Hydrolysis is followed by acidogenesis or we call it fermentation. In this step, the

hydrolysis products are metabolized by acidogenic bacteria and converted mostly
into volatile fatty acids and alcohols. Typical reactions can be expressed as the
following forms (Mata-Alvarez, 2003) :
C6H12O6 2CH3CH2OH + 2CO2
(Glucose converted to Ethanol)

(5.1)

C6H12O6 + 2H2 2CH3CH2COOH + 2H2O

(Glucose converted to Propionate)

(5.2)

5.2.3

Acetogenesis

The remaining volatile fatty acids and alcohols with chains longer than acetate are
futher broken down by acetogenic bacteria into acetic acid, carbon dioxide and
hydrogen for methanogenic bacteria to metabolize them. These reactions reduce the
Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) and the Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD).
Typical reactions of this step are described below (Mata-Alvarez, 2003):
C6H12O6 + 2H2O 2CH3COOH + 2CO2 + 4H2
(Glucose transformed into Acetate)

(5.3)

CH3CH2OH + 2H2O CH3COO- + 2H2 +H+

(Ethanol transformed into Acetate)

(5.4)

2HCO3- + 4H2 + H+ CH3COO- + 4H2O

(Bicarbonate transformed into Acetate)

(5.5)

5.2.4

Methanogenesis

In the final step of the anaerobic digestion, methane and carbon dioxide are produced
24 | P a g e

from the remaining products of the acetogenic stage. Methane is mostly derived from
the acetate the fermentation of an alcohol and from carbon dioxide reaction with
hydrogen. Typical reactions of this step are described below (Mata-Alvarez, 2003):
2CH3CH3OH + CO2 2CH3COOH + CH4
(Ethanol converted to Acetate)

(5.6)

CH3COOH CH4 + CO2C

(Acetate converted to Methane)

(5.7)

CH3OH + H2 CH4 + H2O

(Methanol converted to Methane)

(5.8)

CO2 + 4H2 CH4 + 2H2O

(Carbon dioxide converted to Methane)

(5.9)

5.3 Factors Affecting Anaerobic Digestion Process

Several groups of bacteria are involved in the anaerobic digestion process and so it is
important to provide stable environmental conditions. Even temporary changes in
environmental conditions can disturb or even damage the process performance.
5.3.1

pH

The acceptable range for the bacteria to perform digestion is between 5.5 and 8.5
(Seadi et al., 2008). And

the methanogenic groups work only with pH close to neutral

levels as methanogen population consume acids produced in the previous stages. If

methanogenesis cannot work properly, acid will be accumulated and pH becomes
lower. pH can be used as the indicator for overloading of feedstock.
5.3.2

Temperature

Temperature is another very critical parameter to control in anaerobic digestion.

There are three main temperature ranges where anaerobic digestion can occur:
Thermophilic (50C 60C), Mesophilic (35C 40C) and Psycrophilic (15C
25C) (De Bruyn & Hiborn, 2007). Thermophilic digestion operates at highest
temperature range. It allows higher loading rates and can break down organic
materials rapidly and produces largest volumes of biogas. A small digestion tanks is
required and the retention time can be as short as 5 to 10 days. At the same time, it is
more sensitive to environmental conditions and input materials. Also, more energy is
required for heating the system.
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Mesophilic is the most common range of digestion as bacteria operating in this range
are more robust and can tolerate greater changes in the environmental parameters. A
longer retention time is required compared to thermophilic range. It usually requires
15 to 20 days to break down organic matters to produce biogas (De Bruyn & Hiborn,
2007).

Psychrophilic digestion occurs at around ambient temperature and so takes a

much longer time to digest organic matters and produce methane at a steady rate. The
retention time can reach 100 days (Seadi et al., 2008) and so require a large storage pit
or lagoon to undergo digestion process. In view of the limitations mentioned above,
mesophilic digestion is the most suitable candidate to digest food waste in an urban
environment, with higher methane production rate and stability.
5.3.3

Retention Time (RT)

Retention time means the time the feedstock spends in the digester. The retention
time depends on the feedstock and the operational parameters, especially temperature.
Shorter retention time will lead to higher biogas generation rate but lower overall
degradation. Retention time is greatly related to the size of the digester, as the longer
the RT, the bigger the digester should be. So, it is important to find a suitable RT for
the design of digester. RT can be divided into hydraulic retention time (HRT) and
solids retention time (SRT). HRT is the number of days the materials stay in the tank
which is equal to volume divided by the flow of feedstock. SRT is the quantity of
solids stayed in the digester divided by the quantity of solid waste each day.
Equations are listed below (Curry & Pillay, 2012):

HRT

V
Q

(5.10)

SRT

V * Cd
Qw * Cw

(5.11)

V = digester volume (m3)

Cd = solid concentration in the digester
Qw = volume washed each day (m3)
Cw = solid concentration of the waste

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5.3.4

Organic Loading Rate (OLR)

Organic Loading Rate is the amount of organic materials added to the digester in a
given amount of time.

OLR

Q * VS
V

(5.12)

VS = concentration of volatile solid in the feedstock

5.3.5

Substrate Characteristics

There are generally five characteristics of the substrate affecting the anaerobic
digestion process, namely Total Solid (TS), Volatile Solid (VS), Chemical Oxygen
Demand (COD), Carbon / Nitrogen (C/N) ratio and feedstock constituents. TS is the
residue or dry material left over after drying the substrate for 48 hours at 105 C
(Curry & Pillay, 2012).

It is a raw estimation of the amount of organic and inorganic

material in the substrate. VS is an approximation of the organic fraction of the total

solids. It can be determined by heating TS to 550 C for 24 hours (Curry & Pillay, 2012).
Leftover material is inert or inorganic. Only VS, but not TS is biodegradable and can
generate biogas through anaerobic digestion. COD is a measure of the oxygen
equivalent of organic material in a substrate. It gives an accurate estimate of the
amount of organic material in a sample.
The C/N ratio is the measure of the relative amount of the two elements in the
feedstock. It is important because bacteria growth requires a sufficient concentration
of nutrients. Too much nitrogen can bring high pH values and too high C/N ratio
indicates a rapid consumption of nitrogen and thus a lower gas production. Apart
from C/N ratio, feedstock constituents also affect degradability. Lipids and long
chain fatty acids (LCFA) can form floating scum that slows the whole process and
results in toxicity.

5.4 Applications of Anaerobic Digestion

The process can treat any organic biodegradable materials. The range of waste
includes waste paper, grass clipping, leftover food, sewage and animal waste etc. In
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developing countries, AD process is used in homes and farm-based digesters for

cheap, low-cost energy for cooking and lighting. According to United Nations
Development Programme, AD is one of the most valuable decentralized energy
sources (Anaerobic digestion process, 2013).
The product of AD includes biogas, liquid digestate and solid digestate. Biogas
contains 50-70% of methane which can be used as heating fuel to replace the use of
natural gas or town gas. Some countries will further purify and treat the biogas to
obtain 100% of methane and compressed or liquefied to compressed natural gas
(CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG). Any remaining substrate which cannot be
digested by the methanogenic bacteria and the bacteria die during the process make
up the digestate. The liquid digestate is typically applied onto farmland as a low
analysis fertilizer and the solids digesteate can be combined with bulking agents such
as wood chips and used as compost or fertilizer additive or even for animal bedding.
Therefore, AD can provide a substitute for fossil fuels and chemical fertilizers. It also
helps to reduce the energy footprint of waste treatment plants and methane emissions
from landfills. The transportation of waste avoided can reduce the movements of
vehicle and hence the emission from it. Due to relatively high moisture content of
food waste, a large amount of energy will be used to heat up water in
thermochemical conversion technologies, such as incineration and gasification.
Hence, AD is a more suitable technology to convert food waste to energy. The
following chapters will be based on AD to propose a suitable food waste to energy
system in high-rise buildings.

5.5 Estimation of Biogas Generated from Food Waste by AD

After technology is selected for the food waste to energy system, the second step is
to predict the amount of biogas (methane) that can be produced from a given
substrate so that the design of the system can be materialized and economical value
of the system can also be assessed. Assuming there is one ton of food waste available,
two methods are used in this section to estimate the amount of biogas generated from
one ton of food waste.
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The first method is to estimate the biogas generated by the Buswell Equation, which
is developed by Buswell in 1952 (Cho, Park & Chang, 1995). From the equation, 254.7
Nm3 of biogas gas with 53.5% of methane and 46.5% of carbon dioxide can be
produced from one ton of food waste, i.e. 136.2 Nm3 of methane will be produced.
Biogas generated can also be estimated by methane yield obtained from experiment
done in literature review. It is found that 127.4Nm3 of methane can be produced from
one ton of food waste from the methane yield obtained from literature. Detail
calculation can be referred to Appendix 2.

5.6 End Use of Biogas

Comparing the two calculations, the difference between the values calculated from
Buswell equation and the experimental value from literature is about 6.9%. The over
prediction of biogas yield is due to the assumption that 100% of the biodegradable
material is converted to methane and can be tempered by introducing a
biodegradability factor. For a conservative approach, the experimental value from
literature will be used for the design of the food waste to energy system. Therefore,
one ton of food waste can produced 127.4Nm3 of methane. With calorific value of
37.71 MJ/ m3, energy value of digesting 1 tons of food waste would be 5070 MJ
(Perry & Green, 2007).

There are several ways to utilize the energy generated from anaerobic digestion of
food waste. The most common way is the generate electricity by a gas fired
electricity generator. However, the generator efficiency is not high, range from 30%
to 40%. In our case, assuming 33% efficiency of the gas generator, electricity
generated from one ton of food waste would be 465 kWh (1673 MJ). Another way to
utilize the energy from food waste is direct burning of the gas, replacing the fuel of
appliances which are originally fired by natural gas or town gas, such as water boiler
and cooking appliance. The efficiency of direct burning of biogas can up to 70 %
(Energy efficiency of water heaters, 2013).

So, energy utilized in this case would reach 3549

MJ, more than double of the energy utilized through electricity generator.
To increase the utilization rate of biogas, it can actually be utilized in the combined
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system to generate both electricity and heat at the same, which is called a combined
heat and power (CHP) system. CHP captures some or all of the by-product heat for
heating purposes, either very close to the plant, or as hot water for district heating
with temperatures ranging from approximately 80 to 130 C. By capturing waste heat
from power generation, efficiency of CHP system can reach 85%, hence the energy
utilized from food waste would reach 4309 MJ (US EPA, 2013).
Biogas generated can also be treated to remove carbon dioxide and other trace
materials and upgrade to biomethane, which can replace natural gas and can be
further compressed or liquefied to CNG and LNG respectively. However, there is no
natural gas application in Hong Kong, upgrade to biomethane is not a suitable
application for biogas generated from food waste. Also, large investment would be
involved for the biomethane upgrade equipment. Therefore, CHP will be selected for
our design for food waste to energy system due to the high energy utilization rate
among all the other applications.

5.7 Food Waste to Energy System

Based on the studies on anaerobic digestion and biogas estimation, a food waste to
energy system is proposed. Mesophilic digestion is adopted for its higher methane
production rate and stability. The biogas produced will be diverted to the CHP
system to generate electricity and waste heat is recovered to produce hot water for
building use. Below is the schematic diagram of the proposed food waste to energy
system.

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Anaerobic
Digestor
Enclosed
Flare
Exhaust
gas

Biogas Holder

Indoor

Hot
water
Cold
water

Outdoor

Sludge

Water
Boiler

Electricity for
building use

Heat
exchanger
Gas Generator

Food waste
Grinder

Hydrolysis Tank

Pump

Screw
Press

Waste
Water

Compost
Liquid Storage

Aeration

Fig. 5.2Proposed food waste to energy system

5.7.1

Process Description

Food waste collected first entered the grinder and is grinded to smaller particle size.
It allows greater surface area for microbes to break down the organic materials and
allows the resulting slurry to be easier to pump. The grinded food waste will be
mixed with wastewater produced at the end of the process in the tank where
hydrolysis takes place. As hydrolysis can produce unpleasant smell, the tank should
be kept indoor under negative pressure to prevent the smell reaching outside. The
product of hydrolysis is then pumped to anaerobic digester for the remaining stages
of digestion to proceed. The tank will be equipped with a top mounted mixer and
well insulated. As the temperature control of digestion is important, the digestate will
pass through a heat exchanger to gain heat from the exhaust gas and return to
digester so that 35C can be maintained in the digester to give a stable temperature
for the digestion process. It also provides mixing for the system.
The biogas generated will be collected and stored in the biogas holder. Biogas will
then be diverted to a CHP system in which electricity is generated from the gas
generator and the waste heat from the exhaust gas is recovered to heat up the
recycled digestate in the heat exchanger and boil up water. The biogas holder serves
as a buffer tank for biogas when the intake of biogas by CHP system is slower than
the biogas generation rate. In any case the biogas generation rate is too high and the
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biogas holder limit is reached, the excess biogas will be flared off in an enclosed
flare.
Beside biogas, sludge will also be produced in the anaerobic digestion process.
Sludge collected will pass to a screw press in which solid and liquid digestate are
separated. Oxygen is added to the liquid storage tank for bacteria to digest the
organic matter remains in the liquid degestate. The digested matter will sink in the
bottom of the tank and be redirected to the screw press. The remaining waste water
can be recycled to be used in hydrolysis process. The solid digestate will then enter
the composting machine and can be used as nutrient-rich fertilizers.
5.7.2

Equipment Sizing

To design the proper equipment sizing, we have to estimate the amount of food waste
entering the system, i.e. capacity of the system. Domestic building will be used as an
example in this section for equipment sizing. From government data, food waste
generated per person is roughly 0.5 kg per day (Press release, HKSAR Government, 2010).
The average domestic household size of Hong Kong is 2.9 (C&SD, 2013), each
household can then generate 1.45 kg of food waste every day. The number of flats in
a building of public housing estate is approximately 500 900 flats, depending on
the block types. The equipment sizing will therefore be based on the system capacity
of treating 1 ton of food waste per day.
Digester
In completely mixed digesters the main design parameter is volume. The effective
reactor volume is affected by scum and grits accumulation due to the presence of
inorganic matter or possibly poor mixing performance. Effective volume is the sizing
parameter that is considered here. The tank effective volume (V) is related to the
hydraulic retention time (HRT) and the feed flow rate (Q).
V = HRT * Q

(5.13)

Organic loading rate (OLR) is another parameter for digester sizing. With a constant
feedstock concentration, fixing OLR establishes the value of HRT, and hence the
volume. VS is the volatile solid.
32 | P a g e

OLR =

Q *VS
VS
=
V
HRT

(5.14)

Thus an increase in the OLR design value can be made with the intention of
decreasing HRT. Increasing OLR will increase feedstock viscosity, and may have
negative effect on the mixing efficiency for digester. To have good pumpability,
upper limit in concentration is around 12-15% of total solid, and is referred to as wet
condition (Curry & Pillay, 2012). The bulk density of food waste is typically reported to
be between 490 and 690 kg /m3 from literature (WRAP, 2007). The average value of
590 kg/m3 will be used in this study. Therefore, the feed flow rate (Q) will be 1.69 m3
/ day. As dryness of food waste is 30%, to increase the pumpability of feedstock,
same amount of water have to be added to dilute the substrate to decrease the dryness
to 15%. The resultant waste feed flow rate is than equal to 3.39 m3 / day.
At mesophilic digestion, it usually requires 15 to 20 days to break down organic
matters to produce biogas. Figure 5.3 shows the relationship between biogas yield
and HRT, which is derived from Monod Model, a steady state kinetic model for
activated sludge developed by Lawrence and MaCarty in 1970 (Mata-Alvarez, 2003).
The 35C line refer to mesophilic digestion, it shows the biogas generation rate start
to reach its maximum at HRT equals to 20 days. Therefore, 20 days is adopted and
the required volume of digester is found to be 67.8 m3 ~ 70m3.

Fig. 5.3 The ratio of specific gas production to maximum specific gas production (B/Bo) versus
hydraulic retention time, as a function of temperature (Mata-Alvarez, 2003)

The organic loading rate is also determined as a counter check of the digester volume.
33 | P a g e

Using the same assumption of previous section, moisture content of food waste is
70% and the ratio of volatile solid to total solid is 90 %. VS is found to be 270 kg /
day, with feed flow rate of 3.39 m3 / day, VS can be expressed as 79.64 kg / m3.
Therefore, OLR equals to 3.98 kg VS / m3 / day.
For wastewater treatment and farm waste, OLRs can range from 1-5 kg VS/m3
(Polprasert et al., 1994).

Studies have shown that food waste can gain a higher OLR

compared to sludge. OLR at 3.98 kg VS / m3 / day is found to be acceptable and the

calculated digester size is then valid. The space required to install the digester
depends on the preferred height. The standard ceiling height of Hong Kong building
is about 3m. To have the digester height of 2.5m, the required diameter of the
digester equals to 6m. Therefore, the space required for installing anaerobic digester
is 36 m2. Below is the process flowchart used to determine the required digester size.

Annual Tonnage of waste

Dryness (%)

Yes

Are total
solids less
than 15%

No

Add water until Total Solids

are less than 15% for
pumpability

Convert Tonnes to Volume

of Waste via Dryness Factor

Calculate Flow Rate (Q) in

m3/day

Calculate Possible Range

for HRT based on Volume
and OLR

Calculate Volume of
Digester based on Q and
HRT

Calculate OLR based on Q,

VS content and Volume of
Disgester

Yes

Is OLR within
defined limits
for substrate?

No

Digester Size is Valid

Recalculate Digester size or

HRT until OLR is within
acceptable range

Fig. 5.4 Digester sizing process flow chart (Curry & Pillay, 2012)

34 | P a g e

Biogas Holder
The size of the biogas holder is determined by the biogas generation rate. Adopting
the experimental value from literature review, methane production rate is 127.4 Nm3
/ day. Assuming methane content of biogas to be 53.5%, the biogas generation rate is
238.1 Nm3 / day or 9.9 Nm3 / hr. Biogas generated will be used in the CHP system to
generate electricity and heat, biogas holder is used as a buffer to store the biogas
before it is used downstream. Therefore, the size of biogas holder can be determined
by a specific buffer time. 5 hours is adopted for the buffer time for the proposed
system. As a result, the required size for biogas holder is equal to 49.6 m3 or ~ 50 m3.
Using the same principle of digester, by keeping the height of the biogas holder to
around 2.5m, the diameter of the holder equals to 5m. Therefore, the space required
for installing biogas holder is 25 m2.
Hydrolysis Tank
Generally hydrolysis bacteria requires 0.5 to 1 day to work (Seadi, et al., 2008), with the
consideration of system shut down or emergency, the hydrolysis tank is designed to
contain 3 days of food waste for bacteria to work. With the feed flow rate of
3.39m3/day, the size of the hydrolysis tank should be 10 m3. 6m2 of space should be
adequate for the installation of hydrolysis tank.
Enclosed Flare
Any biogas overflow will be flared off by the enclosed flare. So, the size of the
enclosed flare depends on the end user, i.e. the CHP system fuel flow rate. Using the
same design principle as biogas holder, a safety factor of 2 hours is assumed to take
care of overflow biogas. Therefore, the flow rate required for the enclosed flare
would be 20 Nm3/ hr. The space required for such small flow of flare is minimal.
Hence, 5m2 is reserved for the installation of enclosed flare.
Auxiliary Equipment
Beside the equipment mentioned above, some other auxiliary equipment are required
for the system, include the following item:

CHP System

Composting Machine
35 | P a g e

Pumping Area

Heat Exchangers

Screw Press

Liquid storage tank

Grinder

The size of the above equipment is small compared to the anaerobic digester and
biogas holder. 10 m2 of space should be adequate for each of the equipment above.
With this assumption, total space required for the auxiliary equipment would be
70m2.
As biogas will be produced during anaerobic digestion and there may have some
leakage in the holder or digester, for safety purpose, it is suggested that anaerobic
digester, biogas holder and enclosed flare to be installed in outdoor area such as
podium of the domestic building. Other equipment will be installed in indoor area,
under a negative pressure room to prevent odor emitted from hydrolysis escape
outside and affect people living around. The total spaced required for outdoor
facilities and indoor facilities would be 66 m2 and 76 m2 respectively.
5.7.3

Source Separation and Collection System

Collection of food waste from domestic households for treatment is always difficult.
It is because the majority of households in Hong Kong are resided in multi-storey
buildings. Most of these buildings do not have space available for dedicated food
waste containers at both the household and building levels. This difficulty is
aggravated by the hot and humid weather of Hong Kong that could easily cause
potential hygiene and odor problems. To tackle this problem, a vacuum food waste
collection system is proposed.
This system does not require any manual handling and transportation of food waste.
Food waste is disposed of in centrally and conveniently located disposal inlets. The
inlets are connected to a pipe system through which the waste is removed from the
kitchen by vacuum. The pipe system ends in a collection station. Figure 5.5 shows
the schematic diagram of the proposed vacuum food waste collection program.

36 | P a g e

Fig. 5.5 Vacuum food waste collection system (Envac, 2012b)

This technology is widely used in overseas and there are some projects in Hong
Kong as well. The first high rise system was installed in Fan Ling in 1995 and there
are totally seven systems installed in Hong Kong nowadays (Envac, 2012a). The
maximum capacity of the vacuum collection system is 20 tons per day, and the
maximum height of building to install such system is 50 storey. This system is
therefore suitable to be installed with the proposed food waste to energy system in
domestic high rise buildings.
5.7.4

Treatment of residue

Any remaining substrate which cannot be digested by the methanogenic bacteria and
the bacteria die during the process make up the digestate. Digestate solids contain
higher concentrations of plant-available nitrogen and phosphorus compared to
as-excreted manure (Extension, 2012). The high carbon content of digestate solids adds
organic matter to the soil and improves the water holding capacity of the soil. Sludge
produced in the anaerobic digestion will be dewatered to appropriate moisture
contents followed by feeding to the composting facilities for processing. It usually
takes about two weeks to finish the composting process, with regular aeration to
maintain the aerobic condition. The waste material will then become useful stabilized
compost, which can be blended with other materials or dried and pelletized. With
70% moisture content, 1 ton of food waste contain about 300 kg total solid. A 350 kg
composting machine is proposed to convert the solid digestate to compost.

37 | P a g e

5.8 Application and Effectiveness of Proposed System

The proposed system is designed based on the food waste generated from domestic
building. This system can also be applied to commercial buildings as food waste
produced in C&I sector keep increasing. Examples of domestic buildings and
commercial buildings will be selected to apply the proposed food waste to energy
system. The effectiveness of the system, i.e. percentage of energy generated from
food waste to total energy consumption of building will be discussed.
5.8.1

Domestic Building

Kwai Yuet House from Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate, located in Kwun Tong Area, is
selected and the basic information of the building is listed below (HKHA, 2011):
Number of flats per storey: 20 flats
Number of storey per building: 44 storey
Total number of flats: 879 flats
Total population of building: 2232
Assuming each person generating 0.5 kg of food waste every day, food waste
generated in Kwai Yuet House every day is 1116 kg. The proposed system with
capacity of 1 ton per day is thus suitable to be installed in Kwai Yuet House. As
estimated in previous section, space required for outdoor facilities and indoor
facilities is 66m2 and 76m2 respectively. Fig 5.6 shows the floor plan of Kwai Yuet
House. The possible area to install outdoor facilities and indoor facilities are framed
in blue and red respectively.
With the combined heat and power system, electricity generated from biogas
produced can be connected to the electricity grid and replace energy consumed in the
building. Heat recovered can be used to boil water and supply to different households
as a centralized hot water system. The overall output energy from the system is 465
kWh electricity and 732 kWh heat, i.e. total energy output from the system is 1197
kWh.
The average domestic household electricity consumption is 4532 kWh per year, i.e.
12.4 kWh per day (Legislative Council LC Paper, 2007). Total electricity consumption of
38 | P a g e

the building per day: 12.4 * 879 = 10900 kWh. The heat generated from the system
can replace the heat originally generated from town gas. Assuming average
household town gas consumption is 20 units per month and each unit represents 48
MJ, every household consume 32 MJ of town gas per day. Total town gas
consumption of building per day: 32 * 879 /3.6 = 7813 kWh. The total energy input
for the building is therefore 10900 kWh + 7813 kWh = 18713 kWh.
The system effectiveness of the proposed system is therefore 6.4% which do not
satisfy the expectation of general public as half of the respondents of survey think the
investment will be justified if it can achieve 10% - 30% of the building total energy
input. Please refer to Chapter 4 for details. The system effectiveness may further
increase if whole estate is considered rather than a single building. From the studies
above, it can be concluded that the proposed food waste to energy system is
technically feasible to be installed in domestic building.

Outdoor
Facilities

Indoor
Facilities

Fig. 5.6 Floor Plan of Kwai Yuet House and area for proposed system installation (HKHA, 2011)

5.8.2

Commercial Building

To have sufficient amount of food waste to feed in the proposed system, targeted
39 | P a g e

commercial high-rise building is shopping mall with restaurants and cafeteria. APM
is selected as an example and the numbers of shops which will generate food waste
are listed below:
Category

Number

Restaurant

20

Cafeteria

Karaoke

Supermarket

Total

23

Table 5.1 Categories of shops in APM (APM, 2013)

The amount of food waste generated from APM is about one tons / day (Lam, 2012).
Currently, food waste generated from APM is collected and feed into composting
machine with capacity of 100 kg per day, which cannot cater for all food waste
collected (Lam, 2012). To have a better utilization of food waste generated, a capacity
of 1 ton per day proposed food waste to energy system could be used in APM. The
space required for the installation is therefore the same as the one proposed for
domestic building and hence 66m2 and 76m2 are required for the installation of the
outdoor and indoor facilities respectively. Fig 5.7 shows the floor plan of APM
shopping mall, making up total retail area of 60,000 m2. Space for installing indoor
facilities should be more than adequate and outdoor facilities are suggested to be
installed on the roof of the building.
The amount of energy produced will be 5070 MJ, with the CHP system installed, 465
kWh of electricity and 732 kWh of heat can be produced every day. As the annual
electricity consumption of APM is not available, the energy consumption figures of
Festival Walk, shopping mall with similar mix of shop categories are used for the
estimation of system effectiveness. The annual electricity consumption of Festival
Walk in 2010 is 27125079.2 kWh, i.e, 74315.3 kWh per day (Chan, 2010).
Assuming the heat recovered can replace the energy currently driven by electricity,
the system effectiveness of the proposed system is only about 1.6%, which is much
lower than the one proposed in domestic building. This can be explained by the
higher amount of energy used in commercial building for Heating, Ventilation, and
40 | P a g e

Air Conditioning (HVAC) system. In conclusion, the proposed food waste to energy
system is technically feasible to be installed in commercial buildings with restaurants
and cafeteria for food waste feedstock. However, the justification of investing such
system with the low system effectiveness have to be considered and will be discussed
more details in the next chapter.

Fig. 5.7 Floor Plan of APM Shopping Mall (APM, 2013)

41 | P a g e

Chapter 6 Environmental and Social Impact

The aim of this chapter is to evaluate the environmental impact of installing the
proposed system food waste to energy system in high-rise buildings. The whole
stages of disposal involved in the systems include collection, transportation,
treatment and final disposal. It can negatively affect the environment if their
by-products are not appropriately utilized as intended. Life cycle assessment is
carried out to compare the whole state of treating food waste with the proposed
system compare to dumping food waste to landfill, which is the ordinary food waste
management tool in Hong Kong. Also, the impact to the people living or working in
the building with the proposed system will be addressed. As food waste contains
high moisture and protein-rich organics, and these characters make them easily rotten
and induce odor problems, odor and hygiene problem and safety problem will be the
main focus of the social impact studied here.

6.1 Life Cycle Assessment

Life cycle assessment is an effective environmental tool dealing with the complex
interaction between the environment and a product or activity (Kim & Kim, 2010).
System boundary covered from initial food waste generation at a household to its
final disposal. Food waste generated at household goes through the process of
separate collection, transportation, treatment and disposal stage. Air emissions and
water effluents were discharged to the atmosphere and to the water body. To
understand the environmental impact of the proposed food waste to energy system,
life cycle assessment will be carried out focusing on two areas, food waste
transportation and food waste treatment of 1 ton of food waste.
The global warming potential was selected as an indicator to evaluate environmental
impact of the proposed system compared to landfilling food waste. Amount of
greenhouse gases that contribute to the global warming were converted to the
equivalent amount of carbon dioxide. Figure 6.1 and 6.2 show the life cycle diagrams

42 | P a g e

of landfill and food waste to energy system.

Fuel = 5.19 L

Leachate

Food Waste
produced at House
Hold

WWTP

Landfill

Landfill Gas

Air Emission = 13.6 kg CO2 (e)

Eletricity
41.8 kWh
(-24.2 kg CO2 (e))

Air Emission = 1382.2 kg CO2 (e)

Water Effluent

Fig. 6.1 Life cycle diagram of landfill

Electricity = 3.4 kWh

Food Waste
produced at House
Hold

Grinder

Heat = 732 kWh

Electricity = 329.6 kWh
(-225.7 kg CO2 (e))

Electricity = 132 kWh

Hydrolysis

Anaerobic
Digester

Biogas
Holder

Gas
Generator

Enclosed
Flare

Air Emission = 484.7 kg CO2 (e)

Screw
Press

Composting

Compost

Water
Effluent

Fig. 6.2 Life cycle diagram of proposed food waste to energy system

6.1.1

Landfill

Transportation
About 85% of MSW from domestic household is collected by Food and
Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) or its contractors for transfer to
landfills without any charges levied on the waste producers (EPD, 2012c). FEHD and
its cleansing contractors operate 240 modern refuse collection vehicles, collecting
about 5300 tons of household waste every day. The waste collected from residential
buildings is transferred to refuse transfer station or landfills. Fig. 6.3 summarizes the
existing MSW collection system in Hong Kong.

43 | P a g e

Fig. 6.3 Existing MSW collection system in Hong Kong (EPD, 2012c)

For the example domestic building, Kwai Yuet House of Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate,
the nearest refuse collection point transfer station is Kowloon Bay Transfer Station
which is closed in 2005 due to the low utilization rate. Therefore, waste collected
from Ngau Tau Kok area will be directly transferred to the nearest landfill site, South
East New Territories Landfill which is located in Tseng Kwan O. The distance from
Kwai Yuet House to SENT landfill is about 10.7 km, the detail routing is shown in
Fig. 6.4.
Assuming the refuse trucks is driven by diesel and CO2 and CH4 emission factor for
diesel running truck is 2.614 kg/L and 0.0239 g / L respectively (EPD & EMSD, 2008).
The air emission from transporting food waste can be estimated as below:
Diesel consumption = 48.5 L/100 km (Nguyen & Wilson, 2009)
Amount of diesel used for each collection = 10.7 *0.485 = 5.19 liter.
CO2 emission = 2.614* 5.19 = 13.6 kg
CH4 emission = 0.0239 * 5.19 = 0.12 g

44 | P a g e

As global warming potential (GWP) of methane is 21 (Global Warming Potential, 2013),

the equivalent amount of CO2 emission will be = 0.12*21 = 2.6 g CO2. Therefore,
total CO2 equivalent emission for the transportation of food waste from Kwai Yuet
House to SENT landfill is 13.6 kg.

Fig. 6.4 Food waste transportation route from Kwai Yuen House to SENT Landfill

Treatment
Landfill gas is generated from the landfill by chemical reactions of the waste and
microbes, i.e. anaerobic digestion, but at a slower rate than the specially designed
digester. Landfill gas generated from 1 ton of food waste can be estimated by the
equation mentioned in chapter 5. Therefore, landfill gas generated from 1 ton of food
waste equals the biogas generated from the proposed food waste to energy system
estimated in chapter 5, which is 127.4 Nm3 methane and 110.7 Nm3 carbon dioxide
per day.
However, unlike the anaerobic digester, only about 45% of the landfill gas produced
can be captured (Kim & Kim, 2010). For those captured, about 20% are used to generate
electricity for landfill site internal use and also as fuel for leachate treatment plant.
45 | P a g e

The remaining 80% will be flared off. Therefore, 45% of the landfill gas will be
discharged in CO2 form as methane will be burnt to release CO2, contributing 210.5
kg CO2 equivalent emission where the 55% which cannot be captured will be
discharged in CH4 and CO2 form, contributing 1171.7 kg CO2 equivalent emission.
Therefore, total amount of equivalent CO2 emission from landfill treatment is 1382.2
kg.
Energy Generated
Assuming efficiency of the gas generator is 33%, electricity produced from landfill
gas will be 41.8 kWh. This can displace the electricity generate from power company
from coal. According to CLP sustainability report, carbon intensity in 2012 is 0.58 kg
CO2 per kWh in 2012 (CLP, 2012). The CO2 emission avoided can then be calculated
as 24.2 kg. Accounting the CO2 emission avoided, total emission for landfilling 1 ton
of food waste will be 1371.6kg.
6.1.2

Food Waste to Energy System

Transportation
A vacuum food waste collection system is proposed to collect food waste generated
in each household to a centralized food waste collection station. A similar system is
installed in the Valdelasfuentes housing estate in Alcobendas, north of Madrid
(Spain). The Valdelasfuentes estate comprises of 4,800 dwellings. From the 16 inlets
via the 6,000 m long underground pipe network, more than 4 tons of waste per day is
collected and the monthly energy consumption is found to be 102 kWh/ton, i.e. 3.4
kWh /ton /day (Envac, 2011). As the number of flats and capacity of the system is in
similar ratio with the proposed system, the same energy consumption will be
assumed in the proposed system. As electricity will be generated from the system, the
energy required for transporting food waste will be supplied from the system and
hence no carbon emission for this process.
Treatment
Electricity is required to operate the proposed system and hence contributed to CO2
emission. The electricity requirement of equipment is listed below:

46 | P a g e

Grinder: 3.7 kW, operate 4 hours a day, 22.2kWh / day (JWC, 2013)
Hydrolysis Mixer: Operate 4 hours a day, 0.75 kW, 3kWh / day (Mixer Direct, 2010)
Digestion Mixer: Operate at 8 hours a day, 1.5 kW, 12kWh / day (Mixer Direct, 2010)
Screw Press: Operate 2 hours a day, 1 kW, 2 kWh / day (HUBER SE, 2011)
Recirculation pump: Operate 8 hours a day, 1 kW, 8 kWh / day
Control system: Operate continuously, 200W, 4.8 kWh / day
Composting machine: 2400kWh / month (GreenGood, 2010), i.e. 80 kWh / day
Total electricity requirement for the proposed system is 132 kWh, which can be
supplied by the electricity generated from the system. Therefore, the system is
self-sufficient in electricity and there will be no carbon emission for the system
electricity consumption. Assuming there will be 1% leakage from biogas tank due to
open and close of gas valve during normal operation, 1.3 Nm3 methane and 1.1Nm3
of CO2 will be emitted from biogas holder, i.e. 21.7 kg CO2 equivalent emission.
Enclosed flare is designed to be 20Nm3/hr and it is designed to be used only when
biogas is in excess production and emergency situation, it is assumed to operate only
10% of a year. As carbon emission from enclosed flare and gas generator are also in
the form of CO2, the emission can be estimated together. With 1% biogas leakage,
biogas available for gas generator and enclosed flare will be 235.7 Nm3, which
contributed to 463 kg CO2.
Energy Generated
465 kWh electricity and 732kWh of heat can be generated from the system.
Deducting the system electricity requirement, net electricity generated from the
system is 329.6 kWh. Assuming 329.6 kWh of electricity can replace the electricity
supply from CLP grid and 732 kWh of heat can replace Town Gas used for heating
water, with 0.58 kg CO2 / kWh carbon intensity of CLP and 0.628 kg CO2 per unit of
Town Gas, CO2 emission avoided from the system would be 225.7 kg.
Accounting the CO2 emission avoided, total emission for treating 1 ton of food waste
with the proposed food waste to energy system is 259 kg. Comparing with landfill,
the proposed system helps to save 1112.6 kg CO2 equivalent emission per day, i.e.
406.1 tons of CO2 per year, which equals to planting of 17,656 trees (EPD & EMSD,
2008).

47 | P a g e

6.2 Safety Considerations

As there is explosive gas/ air mixture existing in biogas facilities, safety
consideration is essential. Measures that prevent the existence and ignition of an
explosive atmosphere must be taken. Explosive atmospheres are referred to
hazardous locations which are areas where flammable liquids, gases or vapors or
combustible dusts exist in sufficient quantities to produce and explosion or fire. In
hazardous locations, specially designed equipment and special installation techniques
must be used to protect against the explosive and flammable potential of these
substance.
6.2.1

Classification of Hazardous Location

Hazardous location can be divided into zones according to the probability of the
presence of flammable materials, as stated in the international standard EN 60079
(Rockwell Automation, 2001):

Zone 0

Area in which an explosive gas-air mixture is continuously present of

present for long period

Zone 1

Combustible or conductive dusts are present. Area in which an explosive

gas-air mixture is likely to occur for short period in normal operation

Zone 2

Area in which an explosive gas-air mixture is not likely to occur, and if

it occurs it will only exist for a very short time due to an abnormal
condition.

As biogas is composed of methane and carbon dioxide and only methane is

flammable gas, the explosion limit of methane is used to identify the hazardous area.
The lower explosion limit (LEL) and upper explosion limit (UEL) of the methane gas
is 5 % to 15%, meaning that 5% to 15% of methane gas present in air will cause an
explosive environment and explosion could occur if there is an ignition. In the
calculation done in Chapter 5, biogas generated from the system contains 53.5%
methane, which is over the UEL. Therefore, zone 0 is virtually non-existent in the
proposed system as the biogas storage area is not an explosive area. The only
possible areas for explosive gas to present is the opening of biogas holder, digester
and flanges connecting biogas pipe and equipment in which biogas leakage may
occur and forming explosive gas with the mixing of air. According to the safety rule
48 | P a g e

for biogas system published by German Agricultural Occupational Health and Safety
Agency (German Agricultural Occupational Health and Safety Agency, 2008), within 1 m of the
opening of biogas system is classified as Zone 1 and 2m around Zone 1 is classified
as Zone 2. The possible hazardous area is labeled in Fig. 6.5.
Zone 2
Anaerobic
Digestor

Zone 1

Enclosed
Flare

Biogas Holder
Gas Generator
Sludge

Fig. 6.5 Hazardous locations identification

6.2.2

Safety Features of the Proposed System

After hazardous locations are identified, appropriate safety features have to be

adopted in the proposed system. All electrical equipment used in Zone 1 and 2 must
be rated for the appropriate Zone and marked on the equipment body. For outdoor
facilities, 6m should be provided in the horizontal direction between the biogas
holder and adjacent systems and equipment to ensure a safe installation (German
Agricultural Occupational Health and Safety Agency, 2008).

For indoor facilities which are

installed in a negatively pressurized room, a good ventilation system must be in place.

The room should have supply air and exhaust air openings that cannot be closed.
These allow a cross ventilation of the room. It should be guaranteed that the exhaust
is led away directly to the open air. Safety devices like flame arrester and gas
detector should be installed in the biogas system so that any presence of explosive
gas can be monitored and can help to trigger emergency action like shut down the
biogas supply to protect the system from explosion.

49 | P a g e

6.3 Odor and Hygiene Considerations

From the survey conducted to assess public views on the proposed food waste to
energy system, hygiene and odor are the most concern items from the public with
almost half of the respondents consider hygiene and odor as the main concern of the
proposed system. Only about 10% of the respondent concern the cost of installing the
proposed system, which shows the public was far more concerned about health
effects than costs.
Anaerobic digestion is a process that converts the volatile organic matter that
generates most of the odor for the waste industry into a stabilized end product that is
inoffensive and valuable. Also, almost all pathogens will be destroyed during the
process, depending on temperature and retention time. Odorous compounds are
mainly the intermediate products of anaerobic digestion like volatile organic
compound (VOC) and volatile fatty acid (VFA) which accumulate only if the
acid-forming and methanogenic steps are unbalanced and they are rapidly consumed
during AD (Caruana & Olsen, 2011). Therefore if the process is well managed the odor
and hygiene should not be a concern. In the proposed system, hydrolysis tank is
designed to be installed inside a negatively pressurized room so that air can only
enter the room but cannot escape from it, which can significantly reduce the odor
nuisances to the residence.
However, before entering the food waste to energy system, food waste are collected
and stored in a collection area, which may induce odor and cause hygienic problem.
With the use of vacuum pumping system, no manual handling of food waste is
required. All food waste will be delivered to a food waste collection station which is
located in an enclosed room inside the building that residence cannot access.
Bio-filter is suggested to be installed in the room to improve the indoor air quality of
the food waste collection station.
To ensure the hygienic safety of installing the proposed system inside high-rise
buildings, especially domestic one, it is suggested to add a UV disinfection system at
the biogas holder outlet to ensure all gas entering the indoor area is free of bacteria.

50 | P a g e

Chapter 7

Economical Assessment

The aim of this chapter is to determine the economic viability of the proposed food
waste to energy system in high rise buildings. The cost of equipment, construction as
well as the operating and maintenance cost of the system will be estimated. The
electricity, heat and compost generated from the system will be estimated as the
revenue or cost saving of this system. Some intangible cost like landfill management
cost avoided and carbon credit will also be addressed. With the cost and revenue
identified, the economic viability of installing the proposed food waste to energy
system can be assessed by calculating IRR and payback period of installing the
proposed system.

7.1 Cost of Proposed System

7.1.1

Capital Investment

The equipment involved in the system includes but not limited to the following
items:
o Digester
o Hydrolysis Tank
o Liquid Storage Tank
o Gas Generator
o Biogas Holder
o Water Heater
o Enclosed Flare
o Heat Exchanger
o Pump
o Grinders
o Composting machine
o Screw Press
o Vacuum Collection System
Itemized budgets with each component separated out by cost are generally not
publicly available. For example, the listed cost of a digester tank will generally
aggregate the cost of the tank, roof, insulation, heating and related components
51 | P a g e

together. Also, some specific equipment like digester and tank are not standardized
items, but tailor-made, it is difficult to get the exact cost information of those items.
Therefore, the capital investment of the proposed system is estimated based on the
investment of existing AD system by taking a sizing factor according to the capacity
of the system. According to a feasibility study conducted by a US consultant, the
capital investment for an AD system with capacity of 10,000 tons per day and 40,000
per day is USD 4,500,000 and USD 12,000,000 respectively (Kraemer, 2012). The
sizing factor is estimated to be 0.71. Using the same sizing factor and the following
equation, the capital investment for a 1 ton per day system should be around USD
432,522. Adopting exchange rate of 7.8 HKD / USD, the capital investment for the
proposed system is around HK$ 3,400,000.

Capital Cost 2 = Capital Cost 1 (

7.1.2

Capacity2 SizingFactor
)
Capacity1

(7.1)

Operating Cost and Maintenance Cost

The energy required for the proposed system is estimated to be 135.4 kWh per day in
Chapter 6. As the system can generate 465kWh electricity, the system is
self-sufficient in electricity and no cost for electricity is required. Assuming the
maintenance cost is 5% of the capital cost, the maintenance cost for the proposed
system is HK$ 170,000 per year.

7.2 Cost Saving / Revenue

7.2.1

Disposal Cost and Landfill Management Cost

For domestic waste, waste is collected by FEHD or it contractors. Waste collected

will be transferred directly to landfill or to refuse transfer station (RTS), which will
be transferred to landfill ultimately. Most domestic waste, about 2.1 million tons a
year, is collected by the Provisional Municipal Councils. The identifiable costs to
government for handling this amount is about average $830 per ton of waste or $1.75
billion in total, of which about $760 million are the annual costs involved in handling
the waste delivered by the Councils at RTSs and landfills (EPD, 2006). The capacity of
the proposed system is 1 ton per day, so the annual amount of waste avoided for
52 | P a g e

disposal to landfill is 365 tons. Cost avoided from disposal cost would equals to HK$
302,950 per year.
7.2.2

Energy avoided from the Grid

Energy produced from the proposed system is 465 kWh of electricity and 732kWh of
heat. Assuming the energy produced can replace electricity originally supplied form
CLP grid and heat energy supply from Town Gas, deducting 135.4 kWh that system
required for operation, the system can help the building to avoid 329.6 kWh of
electricity and 54.9 unit of Town Gas. Adopting the 2013 tariff of CLP electricity
and Town gas, which is HK$ 1.06 / kWh and HK$ 0.229 / MJ, the proposed system
can help to save HK$ 953.1 per day, i.e. HK$ 347,886 per year.
Tariff component
(/kWh)
Average Basic Tariff

Current

Changes

2013 Tariff

84.2

No change

84.2

Fuel Clause Charge

(FCC)

17.8

+4.6

22.4

Average total tariff

102.0
(+8.4%)

+4.6

106.6
(+4.5%)

Rent & Rates Special

-3.3

Average net tariff

98.7
(+4.9%)

-2.1
+5.8

104.5
(+5.9%)

Table 7.1 CLP Tariff of 2013 (CLP, 2013)

Monthly Consumption in Megajoules (MJ)

Price Per MJ (HK$)

First

500 (Monthly initial Charge $20)

22.90 cents

Next

2,000

22.80 cents

Next

5,000

22.76 cents

Next

10,000

22.66 cents

Next

15,000

22.56 cents

Next

25,000

22.43 cents

Next

50,000

22.33 cents

Next

50,000

22.24 cents

Next

50,000

22.14 cents

Next

50,000

22.05 cents

Over

257,500

21.95 cents

Table 7.2 Town Gas Tariff of 2013 (Towngas, 2013)

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7.2.3

Carbon Credit

In Asia, a large percentage of carbon credits being traded are certified emission
reductions (CER), which are generated under the Kyoto Protocols Clean
Development Mechanism (CDM) for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
equivalent to one ton of CO2. Generated in developing countries, CERs are bought
by developed countries to meet their Kyoto targets or by EU companies and
governments to offset their emissions under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU
ETS). Currently there are at least four exchanges trading in carbon allowances,
namely the Chicago Climate Exchange, European Climate Exchange, Nord Pool, and
PowerNext. In 2008, the average price of CER is around 16 -20. However, more
CERs are available in market now and the price drop to around 15 in 2010 and
further down to around 2.7 in 2013 (Hong Kong Securities, 2008). According to the
calculation in Chapter 6, the emission avoided from the proposed system compared
to landfill is about 548.5 tons of CO2 per year, i.e. 548 CER. Using the 2013 CER
price, carbon credit gained from the proposed system would be around HK$ 14,808
per year. However, there is no market in Hong Kong and the amount of carbon credit
is not much compared to other saving or revenue, this part of revenue can be ignored.
7.2.4

Compost Produced

Compost will be produced as a by-product of the system and can be sold to the
market to gain revenue for the proposed system. According to a report of anaerobic
digestion conducted by Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of United States,
about 31% of feed to anaerobic digester will turn to residual (GreenGood, 2010).
Therefore, amount of compost produced from the proposed system would be around
0.31 ton per day. The price of high quality compost can reach about HK$ 1000 per
ton (Cayuga Compost, 2013). Selling compost produced in the proposed food waste to
energy system contribute to around HK$ 113,150 per year. As a result, total cost
saving / revenue contributed from the proposed system is equal to around HK$
763,986 per year.

54 | P a g e

7.3 Evaluation of Economic Viability

Payback period and internal rate of return (IRR) will be used as an indication of
economical viability of the proposed system with the following assumptions:
1) Capital Investment = HK$ 3,400,000
2) Operating Cost = HK$ 170,000 per year
3) Revenue = HK$ 763,986 per year
4) Construction period = 1 year
5) Depreciation rate = 60% for the first year, 10% for every following year
6) Profit Tax Rate =16.5 %
7) Project life = 20 years
From the assumption above, the proposed system can generate net cash flow of HK$
593,986 per year. The calculated IRR is 15.2% and payback period is 6 years. Detail
calculation can be referred to Appendix 3. For domestic buildings and commercial
buildings, 6 years payback period is acceptable and 15% of IRR is healthy compared
to many other commercial projects. Considering the ongoing increase in energy and
compost prices and the potential incomes from carbon credit, the economic viability
of the proposed system will increase.

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Chapter 8 Discussions
8.1 Feasibility of Food Waste to Energy System
Technical Feasible of the proposed system is studied and it is found to be feasible to
install the proposed system in domestic buildings as well as commercial buildings.
However, the system effectiveness of domestic example domestic building and
commercial building is just 6.4% and 1.6% respectively, which is much lower than
the expectation from the public as the result from survey shows that public think the
investment will be justified if the system can achieve 15-30% system effectiveness.
For domestic building, the effectiveness of the proposed system may significantly
increase if the food waste generated in the whole estate can be collected and treated
to provide energy in a centralized area. However, more infrastructures may be
required and space may not be adequate for every estate. Single building will be
easier for design and management. For commercial building, the effectiveness is low
as the energy consumption for commercial building is much more than domestic
building due to the HVAC system. Although it is technically feasible to install the
proposed system in commercial building, the economic benefit may not be as
obvious as domestic building.
On environmental side, the proposed system can obviously benefit to the
environment and society due to the energy generated from waste. As landfill is the
only food waste management means in Hong Kong, the proposed system can help to
reduce the overall carbon emission from life cycle assessment. Also, it can provide a
green image to the public. Although the proposed system is not very competitive on
economical side, it is quite reasonable if environmental and social cost are
considered.
Therefore, it is technically, environmentally and economically feasible to install a
food waste to energy system in high-rise buildings. However, there are still many
limitations and difficulties on the operation and management side of the system
which will be discussed in details in this chapter. Government support is very
important for the successful installation of the proposed system.
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8.2 Limitation and Difficulties

8.2.1

Investment and Management of the Facilities

One limitation of installing the proposed system is the large investment involved. As
estimated in Chapter 7, 3.4 million of Hong Kong dollars are required for installing a
1 ton per day food waste to energy system, and HK$ 170,000 per year for operating
and management cost. Who pay the bill is an important question. Although from the
survey results, most of the respondents are willing to pay more for the building with
such system and also willing to pay more for management fee, this is not a
value-added installation in the developers view. Therefore, government subsidy is
very important for the success of installing food waste to energy system in private
domestic housing and also commercial buildings. It may be easier if the proposed
system is installed in the public housing as it is owned by Housing Authority and the
investment would then be done by the Government, in other words, taxpayers
money. As profit making is not the objective of building public housing, installing
the proposed system in public housing can act as a pilot project to demonstrate the
effectiveness of the system as well as saving our energy and alleviate the pressure on
landfill.
The second issue arising from installing the proposed system is the management of
the facilities. There is quite a numbers of equipment involved in the system and some
of them require manpower to operate and maintain the system. Although the capacity
of the proposed system is only 1 ton per day and the size of the equipment is small,
this is still a process plant that requires technical people to monitor, operate and
maintain the system. No matter who own the system, existing staff of the
management company is not competent to maintain the system. Therefore, the
building owner or the management company needs to employ a few specialists with
knowledge and experience on the proposed system to operate and maintain it. This
increase the operating cost of the system.
8.2.2

Utilization of Energy Generated

In the proposed system, energy generated will be used to generate electricity and hot
water to supply the building use. For commercial buildings, it is a straight-forward
utilization as all the energy used in the building is centralized and managed by one
57 | P a g e

company. However, there may be some issues for the utilization in domestic
buildings as hundreds households are involved in the building. It is difficult to evenly
distribute the electricity and hot water generated from the system to each household.
A comprehensive energy management system should be set up and managed by the
management company such that each household can benefit the same from the
energy generated from the proposed system. Centralizing all electricity and hot water
usage in the building may be a solution for that. The management company pays the
bill to Electricity Company for the whole building instead of household paying
themselves. Each household can then pay the management company for their
electricity used base on their actual consumption as a part of household management
free.
8.2.3

Encourage Generation of Food Waste

Sustainability of the system is another concern. We have to ensure there is sufficient

feedstock to keep the system operating. If less food waste is feed to the system, less
energy will be generated and the effectiveness of the system will decrease and not
justify the investment. This goes back to the system investment problem mentioned
above. This also raises another worry from public that the installation of the
proposed system will encourage the generation of food waste as sufficient feedstock
has to be fed to the system. On the other hand, the proposed system provides an
easier way for food waste treatment may also encourage the generation of food
waste.
Waste reduction is always at a higher priority than waste treatment in waste
management principle. To reduce the generation of food waste or any other type of
waste, behavior change is critical and it can only be achieved through education,
which is a long progress and government support is important. Of course we would
like to see the public reduce their food waste generation amount, but there is still
some kind of food waste that is unavoidable during food processing and treatment.
The proposed system is now designed with capacity of 1 tons food waste per day and
caters for current food waste generation rate. If food waste generated decrease in the
future, the system can still operate with existing equipment but with less operating
cost. Therefore, this is important to let people know the target feedstock of the
proposed system is unavoidable food waste and the proposed system can only help to
58 | P a g e

generate energy from waste and save landfill space, but not helping them to reduce
waste.
8.2.4

Government Approval

Although the installation of the proposed system is technically, economically and

environmentally feasible, it cannot be successful without government policy support.
To install the proposed system, besides the large investment involved, certain
licenses and approvals have to be granted from various government departments,
such as the Gas Safety Office (GSO) of Electrical and Mechanical Service
Department (EMSD) for the construction and operation of the biogas system,
Buildings Department (BD) for the installation of the proposed system in the
building. If the project is not proposed by the government but initiated by
commercial parties and there is no policy supporting the installation of proposed
system, the approval process may be long and may eventually kill the project.
8.2.5

Difficulties Encountered in this Study

Collection of data and accuracy of estimation are the two main difficulties
encountered in this study. The actual data of food waste produced is difficult to
collect as most of the household will not separate food waste from their daily waste,
even if they do so, they will not measure and record how much waste they produced
unless they participated in some survey programs held by NGOs. Data from
commercial sector and hotel is also difficult to access. Hotels are approached but no
response is received.
The amount of biogas generated is estimated by theoretical equation and experiment
done in literature published by South Korean scholars. However, the actual amount
of biogas produced varies with different type of wastes and food waste generated in
Hong Kong is quite different from the waste produced in other countries. Therefore,
the estimated amount of biogas generated maybe more than the actual amount can be
generated from 1 ton of Hong Kong food waste.
For economical assessment, it is difficult to obtain separate equipment cost from
supplier and most of the equipment required is not available in Hong Kong.
Therefore, it is difficult to assess the actual cost required for the proposed system.
59 | P a g e

Instead, the investment cost is estimated from the cost of a similar system designed
by a US consultant and adjusted with appropriate sizing factor. Again, the
construction environment and costing in US is quite different from HK. Therefore,
the cost estimated in the study maybe higher or lower than the actual cost required.

8.3 Suggestions on Food Waste Management in Hong Kong

8.3.1

Food Waste to Energy System

From the limits and difficulties mentioned above, government support, in both
economic subsidy and policy view, is critical for the successful installation of the
proposed system and hence to realize the environmental and social benefits brought
from it. It is suggested the government shall set up a food waste to energy funding to
subsidize commercial and private domestic buildings to install the proposed system.
The subsidy amount should be based on the estimated food waste generated from the
system and the equivalent landfill space saved. Also, the government is suggested to
incorporate the food waste to energy system into the newly built public housing
estate, to act as a pilot and show case to demonstrate the feasibility of installing such
system and the benefits obtained from it.
However, no single technique can solve the food waste problem in Hong Kong. With
more than three thousand tons of food waste generated every day, the existing pilot
composting plant in Kowloon Bay and the proposed OWTF is not enough and there
are still plenty rooms for other food waste management and treatment installation.
The proposed food waste to energy system for high-rise buildings can only provide a
solution to tackle the waste generated from domestic and commercial buildings. A
combination of different food waste management systems should be a more effective
way to manage the food waste problem in Hong Kong.
8.3.2

Composting

Composting is another technology that we have to look at. The pilot composting
plant built in 2008 treating 2-4 tons food waste every day collected from commercial
and industrial sectors is a successful project and proves that composting is a good
60 | P a g e

way for Hong Kong to tackle the food waste problem. However, food waste
generated from commercial and industrial sectors is just about 30% of the total food
waste generated in Hong Kong. Therefore, to extend the effectiveness of the
composting plant, a plant with larger capacity should be built to cater for the food
waste generated from domestic household. This comes to another issue which is the
collection and separation of food waste.
For an efficient composting process to occur, collected wastes should be sorted to
remove non-biodegradable waste and mixed with bulking agents before loading to
the composting unit. Although waste separation becoming more common nowadays,
there is no separating facilities specially designed for food waste. Only certain
private estates or education institutes got the food waste separation facilities. To have
an efficient domestic food waste separation for composting plant, government again
plays a very important role like setting up policy for compulsory food waste
separation. In view of this, small scale food composting will be easier for domestic
application.
Food composting machine is commonly used in Taiwan and Japan to handle food
waste generated from each household. The treatment capacity of machine available
in the market ranges from 1kg to 500 kg per day. For a four people family, machine
with capacity of 2 kg food waste per day or even a food waste basket is adequate.
The time required for composting is about 3 weeks for small scale composting
machine (GreenGood, 2010). However, Hong Kong is lacking of purchasing channel for
composting machine and food waste basket. As only some of the NGOs can help the
public to order it, domestic household using it is not common in Hong Kong. More
purchasing channels should be identified and the promotion of using it should be
enhanced. It cannot be done solely by NGOs, government should pay a part to
educate the public.
The compost product can be used for landscaping, vegetable and fruit production.
For large scale composting plant, compost generated can be sold to local farmer and
compost generated from household can be collected for planting and landscaping in
the estate area.

61 | P a g e

8.3.3

Food Waste Reduction

No matter how effective is the proposed food waste to energy system or food
composting, food waste reduction at source is far more important to tackle the food
waste problem in Hong Kong. Both commercial sector and government can play a
role in it.
8.3.3.1

Commercial

Commercial sector especially restaurants and companies providing catering service

can help to reduce food waste at source. According to a UK survey, for a restaurant
turning over 10,000 GBP a week will throw away at least 200 GBP foods into bin
each week, equals to about 2% of the food serving (SRA, 2010). Reducing food waste
from kitchen can be achieved by simple changes to kitchen food purchasing, storage
and preparation practice. Diligent checking of fridge and freezer temperatures is also
required to reduce the chance of food damage. To avoid food waste generated from
customer side, careful ordering and portion sizing should adopted and the restaurant
should offer varying porting sizes to avoid over-ordering. Menu planning is also
important to ensure seasonal ordering for vegetables and fishes. The restaurant can
impose food waste penalty to customer wasting food to reduce unnecessary
consumption. This is quite common for all you can eat and buffet. The restaurant
can also incorporate food waste generated into staff Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs) to encourage staff to minimize food waste generated from food preparation
process and by customer. Finally, food waste audit is suggested to be carried out to
find out how much exactly the restaurant is throwing away and what it consists of.
This can help the planning of appropriate food waste reduction measures.
8.3.3.2 Government Policy
Education and legislation are always the most effective ways for the government to
implement policy. Food waste charging and compulsory food waste separation is
suggested to effectively reduce the generation of food waste and help to separate the
food waste for easier food waste treatment. However, there are some difficulties to
realize this policy as the food waste can only be charged if it is carefully separated.
To avoid paying on food waste, people may just simply do not separate food waste
62 | P a g e

from MSW like what they are doing now and it is difficult to access the accuracy of
food waste separation. It is suggested that government should enhance the education
and promotion on food waste problem Hong Kong is currently facing. Although
many people realize the food waste problem in Hong Kong is serious, not many of
them know what they can help to alleviate this problem.
Pilot projects of different food waste management facilities can be built to
demonstrate to the public the technologies currently available for food waste
treatment and the consequence of not tackling the food waste problem we are facing
now. Building the proposed food waste to energy system in public housing is a good
pilot project to demonstrate to the public a way to treat food waste in situ.

63 | P a g e

Chapter 9 Conclusions
9.1 Literature Review and Survey
A food waste to energy system with capacity of 1 tons food waste per day is
proposed to be installed in high-rises buildings in Hong Kong. This system can be
applied to both domestic buildings and commercial buildings. Public views on the
proposed system are assessed by conducting survey. The results shows that general
public realize the food waste problem in Hong Kong is serious and agree that food
waste to energy system is an appropriate measures to tackle to food waste problem in
Hong Kong and support the installation of such system.

9.2 Feasibility of Proposed System

Technical details like equipment sizing, energy generated and proposed space for
installation are evaluated. Capital investment and operating cost of the system is
estimated. Environmental benefits from the system are evaluated through life cycle
assessment comparing to landfilling food waste. From the above analysis, the
proposed food waste to energy system is found to be technically, economically and
environmentally feasible to be installed in high-rise buildings in Hong Kong.

9.3 Limitation and Difficulties

There are some limitations and difficulties encountered for the installation of
proposed system. Investment and management of the system is a critical issue for the
proposed system as large investment is involved in the system. The utilization of
energy generated may be an issue in domestic building as even distribution of energy
to each household is difficult to achieve. However, this can be solved by centralizing
the energy system in the whole building and managed by the management company.
Collection of data and accuracy of estimation are the two main difficulties
encountered in this study. The actual data of food waste produced is difficult to
collect and can only be estimated with the average figures available from literature
and news. The amount of biogas generated and the investment cost are estimated by
theoretical equation and overseas studies. Therefore, there may be an error for the
64 | P a g e

estimated biogas generated and system investment cost.

9.4 Suggestions
Finally, government approval may be a hurdle of the proposed system installation
and therefore government support is critical for the success of installing proposed
system. It is suggested the government to build the proposed system in public
housing for a pilot and demonstration project. A food waste to energy funding should
also be set up to subsidize private developer and commercial sector for the
installation of proposed system. Food waste reduction at source is far more important
than food waste treatment and should be always higher priority than food waste
treatment technology. Therefore, several ways to reduce food waste from sources are
suggested for both commercial sector and government.

9.5 Further Studies

This study demonstrated the installation of food waste to energy system in a
standalone high-rise building is feasible and beneficial to the society and
environment. Further studies can be done to assess the feasibility of installing a
centralized food waste to energy system for a whole housing estate instead of a single
building and compare the effectiveness with single building system.
Example of domestic building and commercial building are selected to apply the
proposed food waste to energy system. Hotel is not considered in this study as there
are difficulties to obtain data of food waste generation data and energy usage from
hotel. As a great portion of food waste generated in C&I sector are contributed by
hotel, it is suggested to extend the feasibility study of installing the proposed system
in hotels.
The economic assessment is only carried out for the proposed system and the
environment impact assessment only compare with the proposed system. More waste
management system can be included in the economic and environmental assessment
for further studies in order to have a more comprehensive comparison between
different food waste management technologies.

65 | P a g e

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72 | P a g e

Appendix 1

Questionnaire

Survey for Public

Objective: access public views of installing a food waste to energy system in
high-rise buildings
Part A: Background Information and Food waste problem in Hong Kong
1. Which age group do you belong to?
Below 15
15 18
19 20
24 28
29 35
36 42
Above 42
2. What is your Education Level?
Primary
Secondary
High School
University
Postgraduate
3. What is your Occupation?
Executive / Managerial
Professional (doctor, lawyer, etc.)
Academic / Educator
Computer Technical / Engineering
Service / Customer Support
Clerical / Administrative
Sales / Marketing
Tradesman / Craftsman
College / Graduate Student
K-12 Student
Homemaker
Self-employed / Own Company
Unemployed, looking for work
Retired
Other
4. Do you think the food waste problem in Hong Kong is serious?
Yes
No
5. How much food waste do you think are produced in Hong Kong every day?
<1000 tons
1000 2000 tons
2000- 3000 tons
3000 4000 tons
4000 5000 tons
> 5000 tons
1|Page

6. Will you eat all the food on your dishes when you have dinner outside home?
Yes, please go to question 8.
NO
7. If not, how many % can you finish?
<50%
50% - 60 %
60% 70%
70% 80%
80% - 90%
>90%
8. Does your housing estate got refuse sorting facilities?
Yes
No, please go to question 10.
9. Any refuse sorting facility specially design for food waste?
Yes
No
10. Will you separate food waste from your everyday waste?
Yes
No
11. Do you think current government policy is sufficient to tackle the food waste
problem in Hong Kong?
Yes
No
12. Do you aware of the following food waste management system?
Organic Waste Treatment Facilities
Kowloon Bay Pilot Composting Plant
Integrated Waste Treatment Facilities
13. Do you heard of the following food waste to energy system?
Combustion
Gasification
Pyrolysis
Anaerobic Digestion
14. Have you ever participated in any food waste recycle or composting program?
Yes. Please specify the program and organization.
No.

2|Page

Part B: Food waste to energy system

In this project, a food waste to energy system is proposed to install within a building.
Food waste will be collected in a building and turn to biogas through anaerobic
digestion. The biogas produced will be used to heat up water or generate electricity
for the building use. Residue will be transferred to landfill. Equipments like
anaerobic digestor, biogas holder ad generator will be installed inside the building.
With this system, amount of food waste dumped to landfill will be reduced and
energy generated from food waste can help to save natural resources.
15. What would you concern if a food waste to energy system is being built inside
the high-rise building? ( can choose more than one)
Odor
Hygiene
Aesthetic
Noise
Safety
Amount of biogas (energy) generated
No Concern
Others, please specify
16. How many energy produced from biogas would you think the system is worth for
investment?
< 5 % of the whole building energy use
5 % - 10 % of the whole building energy use
10 % - 20 % of the whole building energy use
20 % - 30 % of the whole building energy use
30 % - 40 % of the whole building energy use
40 % - 50 % of the whole building energy use
> 50 % of the whole building energy use
17. What type of high-rise building do you think is suitable to install such system?
(can choose more than one)
Domestic Housing Building
Commercial Building
Government Building
Hotel
Others
18. Do you think food waste to energy system in a high rise building is a good means
to tackle food waste problem in Hong Kong compare to other management
system?
Yes. Please go to question 20.
No.
19. Which of the following food waste management system is better than the
proposed food waste to energy system? (can choose more than one)
Composting food waste to fertilizer
Convert food waste to animal feed
Dump into landfill
Others, please specify
3|Page

20. Do you support to install the food waste to energy system inside a high rise
building inside the building you are living or your office located??
Yes
No. Why?
21. Will you agree to pay more to buy a flat with this environmental friendly system
installed in the building?
Yes.
No.
22. Will you agree to pay more management fee for your housing estate to manage
such system in the building?
Yes.
No.
23. Do you have any suggestion on the proposed food waste to energy system?

24. Do you have any suggestion on food waste management in Hong Kong?

4|Page

Appendix 2

Estimation of Biogas Generated

from Food Waste by AD

A2.1

Buswell Equation

The first model of anaerobic digestion is developed by Buswell in 1952 (Cho, Park &
Chang, 1995),

who derived a formula based on the chemical composition to predict

theoretical yields of component products from anaerobic digestion.

(4c h 2o 3n 2 s )
( 4c h 2o 3n 2 s )
H 2O
CO2
4
8
( 4c h 2o 3n 2 s )

CH 4 nNH 3 sH 2 S
8

Cc H h Oo N n S s

To utilize Buswell Equation, it is necessary to know the feedstocks elementary

composition. The typical moleular formular of food waste can be estimated from the
food wast elemental composition obtained in literature.

Table A2.1 Typical data on the ultimate analysis of the combustile components in residential MSW
(Tchobanoglous, Theisen & Vigil, 1993)

1|Page

Assuming there is 100g of food waste, mass of different elements of food waste are
tabulated as below:
Element

Composition (%)

Mass (g)

No. of Mole

Normalized to S

Carbon

48

48

320

Hydrogen

6.4

6.4

6.4

512

Oxygen

37.6

37.6

2.35

188

Nitrogen

2.6

2.6

0.186

14.85

Sulphur

0.4

0.4

0.0125

Table A2.2 Mass of different elements of food waste

The molecular formula of food waste can be expressed by C320H512O188N14.85S. By

substituting c = 320, h = 512, o=188, n=14.85 and s =1 into the Buswell equation, the
anaerobic digestion for food waste can be expressed with the equation below:

C320H 512O188N14.85 S 109.6H 2 O 148.8CO2 171.2CH 4 14.85NH 3 H 2 S

One mole of food waste can produce 148.8 mole of carbon dioxide and 171.2 mole
of methane. Ignoring the small amount of ammonia and hydrogen sulphide formed,
composition of biogas is found to be 46.5% of carbon dioxide and 53.5% of methane.
Assuming moisture content (MC) of food waste is 70%, the ratio of volatile solid
(VS) to total solid (TS) to be 90%. Volume of biogas generated from one ton of food
waste can be calculated as follow:
Molecular mass of food waste = 320*12+512+188*16+14.85*14+32 = 7600g
No. of mole of food waste = 1000*1000/7600 = 131.6 mole.
No. of mole of biodegradable food waste (VS) = 131.6*0.3*0.9 = 32.5 mole
No. of mole of methane produced = 32.5 * 171.2 = 6082 mole.
Volume of methane produced = 6082*(22.4/1000) = 136.2 Nm3.
Volume of Biogas produced: 136.2/0.53 = 254.7 Nm3.

2|Page

A2.2

Literature Review (Cho, Park & Chang, 1995)

Cho et al. conducted batch digestion tests of food waste at 37C with retention time
of 28 days. The methane yield was found to be 0.48, 0.29, 0.28 and 0.47 L/g VS for
cooked meat, boiled rice, fresh cabbage and mixed food wastes respectively.
Adopting 0.47L/g VS methane gas yield for our calculation. Assuming moisture
content (MC) of food waste is 70%, the ratio of volatile solid (VS) to total solid (TS)
to be 90%. Volume of methane generated from one ton of food waste can be
calculated as follow:
Methane produced = 1000*0.3*0.9*472/1000000 = 127.4 Nm3

3|Page

Appendix 3

IRR and Payback Evaluation

A3.1 Internal rate of return (IRR) Calculation

IRR is calculated using excel software based on the new cash flow (NCF) of the food
waste to energy system through 20 years of project life. Assumptions made in the
calculation are listed below:
1) Capital Investment (Capex) = HK$ 3,400,000
2) Operating Cost = HK$ 170,000 per year
3) Revenue = HK$ 763,986 per year
4) Construction period = 1 year
5) Depreciation rate = 60% for the first year, 10% for every following year
6) Profit Tax Rate =16.5 %
7) Project life = 20 years
According to the depreciate rate, initial allowance can be calculated from 60% of the
capex value. Annual allowance is 10% of the difference of capex and initial
allowance. Residue of the system can then be obtained from the capex minus initial
and annual allowance. To evaluate the economic return from the system, Earning
before interest and tax (EBIT) should be obtained by Revenue minus Operating cost,
initial allowance and annual allowance. Profit tax can then be calculated as 16.5% of
the EBIT. Finally, NCF can be obtained from Revenue minus operating cost and
profit tax. The IRR for the food waste to energy system is found to be 15.2 %.
A3.2 Payback Period Calculation
After NCF is calculated, cumulative cash flow (CFF) can be obtained by adding the
previous years cash flow. Payback period is the period of time required for the return
on an investment which means the time required for the CCF to reach 0. It is found
that the payback period for the food waste to energy system is 6 years.

1|Page

Food waste to energy system

Capex
Operating Cost
Revenue
Project Period
Profit Tax Rate
Initial Allowance
Annual Allowance
After Tax IRR
Payback

HK$3,400,000.00
HK$170,000.00
HK$763,986.00
20
16.5%
60%
10%
15.2%
6.0

Year

Capex

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

(HK$3,400,000.00)

Years

Years

Revenue

Operating Cost

Initial Allowance

Annual Allowance

Residue

EBIT

Profit Tax

NCF

CCF

HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00
HK$763,986.00

(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)
(HK$170,000.00)

HK$2,040,000.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00

HK$136,000.00
HK$122,400.00
HK$110,160.00
HK$99,144.00
HK$89,229.60
HK$80,306.64
HK$72,275.98
HK$65,048.38
HK$58,543.54
HK$52,689.19
HK$47,420.27
HK$42,678.24
HK$38,410.42
HK$34,569.38
HK$31,112.44
HK$28,001.19
HK$25,201.07
HK$22,680.97
HK$20,412.87
HK$18,371.58

HK$1,224,000.00
HK$1,101,600.00
HK$991,440.00
HK$892,296.00
HK$803,066.40
HK$722,759.76
HK$650,483.78
HK$585,435.41
HK$526,891.87
HK$474,202.68
HK$426,782.41
HK$384,104.17
HK$345,693.75
HK$311,124.38
HK$280,011.94
HK$252,010.75
HK$226,809.67
HK$204,128.70
HK$183,715.83
HK$165,344.25

(HK$1,582,014.00)
HK$471,586.00
HK$483,826.00
HK$494,842.00
HK$504,756.40
HK$513,679.36
HK$521,710.02
HK$528,937.62
HK$535,442.46
HK$541,296.81
HK$546,565.73
HK$551,307.76
HK$555,575.58
HK$559,416.62
HK$562,873.56
HK$565,984.81
HK$568,784.93
HK$571,305.03
HK$573,573.13
HK$575,614.42

HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
HK$0.00
(HK$61,544.41)
(HK$84,757.09)
(HK$86,082.15)
(HK$87,274.71)
(HK$88,348.01)
(HK$89,313.97)
(HK$90,183.35)
(HK$90,965.78)
(HK$91,669.97)
(HK$92,303.74)
(HK$92,874.14)
(HK$93,387.49)
(HK$93,849.51)
(HK$94,265.33)
(HK$94,639.57)
(HK$94,976.38)

(HK$3,400,000.00)
HK$593,986.00
HK$593,986.00
HK$593,986.00
HK$593,986.00
HK$532,441.59
HK$509,228.91
HK$507,903.85
HK$506,711.29
HK$505,637.99
HK$504,672.03
HK$503,802.65
HK$503,020.22
HK$502,316.03
HK$501,682.26
HK$501,111.86
HK$500,598.51
HK$500,136.49
HK$499,720.67
HK$499,346.43
HK$499,009.62

(HK$3,400,000.00)
(HK$2,806,014.00)
(HK$2,212,028.00)
(HK$1,618,042.00)
(HK$1,024,056.00)
(HK$491,614.41)
HK$17,614.50
HK$525,518.35
HK$1,032,229.64
HK$1,537,867.63
HK$2,042,539.66
HK$2,546,342.31
HK$3,049,362.53
HK$3,551,678.56
HK$4,053,360.82
HK$4,554,472.68
HK$5,055,071.19
HK$5,555,207.67
HK$6,054,928.34
HK$6,554,274.78
HK$7,053,284.40

Project IRR