The Research on Food Waste Pre-Treatment Technology for Incineration in Malaysia

Abstract

Food waste and food loss are used to describe materials that are actually produced for consumption, but are discarded, lost, degraded or contaminated. Food waste (FW) is one of the main parts of municipal solid waste. Landfill is not preferable when compared with other types of waste handling method. It has been reported that the impact of landfill on climate change can be ten times higher than other waste handling methods. However, most FW end up in landfills. This paper reviewed the performance of several food waste pre-treatment technologies to convert FW into feedstock for incinerators/boilers in terms of electrical power generation purposes. The performance of food waste pre-treatment methods and their products were extensively discussed and compared in this paper in terms of calorific value, energy density, and compound reduction, which later directly corresponded with the energy, environmental, and economic factors for the sustainability of future renewable power generation.