Biorefinery Pathways for Institutional Food Waste

Every day, enormous quantities of nutritious food are wasted in landfills across the globe. Agriculture and food production use intensive amounts of water, chemicals, and land, rendering food waste as a major environmental and economic concern. New York State is currently considering legislation that would ban landfill disposal of food waste produced by large institutional generators, such as universities, hospitals, sports venues, restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Institutions have concentrated populations which generate predictable volumes of food waste and waste cooking oil. At the same time, these populations need heat, electricity, vehicle fuel, and soap. Developing a biorefinery system offers great potential to institutions and provides viable and sustainable utilization of various waste streams to generate energy via anaerobic digestion and biodiesel production process while simultaneously solving a waste disposal issue. However, the implementation of biorefinery systems at institutional food waste generators is just beginning, and data required to design the system and relevant case studies are very limited. Recognizing the urgent need to find alternatives for the diversion of food waste from landfills, this dissertation has provided the technical and economic viability of decentralized, onsite biorefinery systems at institutional generators with a specific focus on large institutions generating, on average, more than 1.8 metric tons of food waste per week (~91 t/year, equivalent to 100 short tons/year). The challenges and opportunities of these alternatives have also been considered in this dissertation. First, development of sustainable food waste management requires an integrated, interdisciplinary management structure which includes a good understanding of regional variations in food waste resources, waste treatment facilities and processing capacity in a specific geographic region. Currently, poor quality and unreliable data on food waste prohibits proceeding to efficient waste management. These scarcities of data have led to a call for further research. To identify the research gaps, Chapter 2 begins with an assessment of reliable data on the quantity and types of food waste produced, transport of waste to treatment facilities, location of existing waste treatment facilities, and the amount of wastes that could potentially be treated at these facilities. Regions 3 and 8, as defined by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), were chosen as case studies to the underlying challenges and potential opportunities. The information provided in this chapter can be an important resource for implementing future waste diversion strategies, and further indicate which policy attributes should be considered. In Chapter 3, an assessment was conducted of the technical challenges, economic feasibility and policy opportunities to adopt low-volume anaerobic digester (LVAD) systems, designated for deployment at the scale of an individual food waste generation site. Food waste generators often have much lower volumes of organic material available for conversion than dairy farms or public-owned treatment works (POTW). Small anaerobic digestion systems are not a new technology but have historically been implemented primarily in treating animal waste in developing countries. In the U.S., anaerobic digestion of food waste is usually achieved by co-digestion with dairy manure in centralized facilities, while food waste-only anaerobic digestion is still emerging and public data or case studies necessary to establish this as a potential food waste management pathway are lacking. Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) was chosen as a case study to assess the viability of implementing an LVAD system utilizing campus organic waste. It was demonstrated that the LVAD approach is economically feasible only if several conditions are met: biogas is utilized directly for thermal energy applications, thereby eliminating the capital/operation/maintenance costs associated with electricity production; system capital cost is reduced to $500,000 or less; and available feedstock is increased to at least 900 t/year by importing food waste from neighboring generators and collecting associated tipping fees. Chapter 4 documents an investigation of various solution pathways available to utilize another important institutional food waste material: waste cooking oil (WCO). Institutions such as universities usually generate large amounts of waste cooking oil that can be suitable for production of biodiesel via the process of transesterification. The free fatty acid (FFA) content of waste cooking oil from institutional cafeterias is often lower than many other establishments (i.e., fast food restaurants), and thus has a greater value as a biodiesel feedstock, because the cooking oil replacement rate is often higher. The development of a closed-loop biodiesel production system, including utilization of crude glycerol as an ingredient for soap production, is compelling especially in a constrained system because the locations of WCO feedstock supply and biodiesel demand are in close proximity and controlled by a single entity. Biodiesel can be utilized by the RIT community in vehicles and other applications. Crude glycerol can be refined and used to produce soap of varying quality and has potential as a value-added product. Potentially, the soap could be used in cafeterias and bathrooms across campus and dining services. This study indicated that using waste cooking oil for biodiesel production at the institutional scale could only be viable by generating the revenue from the sale of biodiesel and offsetting the cost of high quality liquid soap at retail price. In Chapter 5, it was demonstrated that black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) could potentially reduce the amount of food waste needing to be landfilled in areas of concentrated generation, such as urban areas and institutions like universities and hospitals. BSFL have previously been used by home gardeners and large agricultural enterprises to transform food wastes and animal manures into feed for chickens or fish, while significantly reducing waste volumes. Bioconversion of food waste biomass with BSFL results in useful products such as protein rich insect biomass. This study demonstrated that bio-methane potentials (BMP) of BSFL were higher than the potential of food waste and manures and 1.5 to 2 times higher than other representative feedstocks, including energy crops and algae. In addition, the yield of biomass per hectare of land used is much higher. BSFL could therefore be a viable feedstock for biogas production or as part of an integrated biorefinery system, and as an effective bioresource solution for the global problem of food waste management. Finally, it is uncertain that an on-site low volume anaerobic digestion system at institutional generators is most economically and environmentally beneficial. Therefore, a model was developed to compare different potential food waste treatment scenarios: centralized anaerobic digestors (AD) at large confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), centralized AD at landfills, centralized AD at waste water treatments plants, and low volume anaerobic digesters (LVADs) at individual food waste generation sites. Chapter 6 presents an assessment of the optimal food waste conversion options for particular spatial distributions of food waste materials in two geographical regions of New York State. The assessment was based on three economic indicators, including net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and payback period (PP), to enable food system stakeholders to determine the most cost-effective food waste utilization strategy. The decision process considered was based on the availability of existing facilities (e.g., stand-alone AD, wastewater treatment plants with AD, and composting), available capacity of selected facilities, and available quantity of animal waste in each region. This assessment demonstrated that capital cost plays a significant role in achieving economic viability, and tipping fees are often the major sources of revenues for these treatment facilities. Without offset of the capital investment from government entities in the form of grants, the economic viability of new facilities is challenging. Therefore, diverting food waste to WWTPs with excess capacity was identified as an important option that showed the most profitable scenario without considering environmental incentives and renewable energy credits. This dissertation focused on economic implications of alternative food waste conversion options for institutional generators, through the integration of conversion technologies using different waste feedstocks in a decentralized, on-site biorefinery architecture. In this sense, the biorefinery model was presented as a potential alternative to centralized large scale-systems that utilize wastes from multiple sources, often including transport of waste over large distances. This concept aimed at maximizing the utilization of food waste in a manner that enables institutional generators to benefit from organic material they generate during normal operation. The findings from this dissertation provide valuable information to small-scale food processors and institutions that currently send their solid waste to landfills or incinerators, paying disposal charges or sending it to anaerobic digestion, usually involving transport costs and tipping fees. The method developed in this dissertation can be readily adapted by other institutions, and the information provided would assist entrepreneurs in achieving successful commercialization of small-scale food waste utilization systems

FACILITATING EFFECTIVE CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS IN A DEVELOPMENT BANK IN MYANMAR

This research investigates to identify the successful intervention of change management in Myanmar's semi-government bank for systemic organizational change. The research has been done in ‘C’ Bank, Myanmar and employs the 41 respondents including different managerial levels from all departments including General Manager, Manager and staffs. This action research employs structured questionnaires and semi-structured interviews in two phases: pre-ODI and post-ODI. The Pair sample T-test and the contents analysis of the interview passages translated from Myanmar to English for coding are included in data analysis and treatments. The results revel that there is a significant difference between the pre- ODI and the post-ODI of motivating change, creating a vision, developing political support and effective change management. Finding of this study suggest that the analysis on how to sustain the momentum of change in establishing the new organization structure, the impact of organizational structure change on branches, and the employees' satisfaction with a new structure should study in the future

Parametric Optimization of NACA 4412 Airfoil in Ground Effect Using Full Factorial Design of Experiment

This investigation emphasizes the changes of the lift-to-drag ratio of an airfoil with the variation of ground clearance and angles of attack. Various ground clearances and angles of attack with a fixed speed of 30 m/s are applied to the NACA 4412 airfoil. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to calculate the aerodynamic coefficients acting on it. To study the influence of these two factors on the lift-to-drag ratio, 32 factorial design based on Design of Experiments (DOE) is utilized. A total of 9 numerical experiments were carried out with Ansys Fluent. When the angle of attack decreases, lift coefficient increases and drag coefficient decreases resulting in a high lift-to-drag ratio: also, the lower the ground clearance, the higher the lift-to-drag ratio. It shows the effectiveness of ground clearance and angle of attack. The analysis shows that either increasing ground clearance or using a higher angle of attack gives a decrement in the lift-to-drag ratio, but there is no interaction between them

Lane Detection System based on Hough Transform with Retinex Algorithm

Nowadays, automotive system becomes a great innovation in the world and lane detection system is important to control automobile vehicles. This paper has developed an efficient lane detection system to deal with different types of lighting conditions. Six types of edge detection techniques: canny, sobel, prewitt, Roberts, Laplacian of Gaussian (LOG) and zero-cross methods are analyzed. Line detection based on canny operator is developed. Moreover, Retinex algorithm is employed to normalize input images for all types of illumination. And Hough Transform with Retinex algorithm is developed to solve lighting problem. The proposed method is compared to Hough Transform with Otsu’s threshold method. The experimental results show that the proposed method can reduce computation time and improve accuracy for lane detection system

Modulation of Th1- and Th2-type immune response in infant mouse after prenatal exposure to volatile organic compound

胎児期､乳児期は化学物質に対して高感受性の時期であるとも云われており､多種多様な化学物質による子供の健康影響とそのメカニズムを把握することは生体機能の正常な発達の観点から重要と考えられている。本研究では低濃度トルエンの胎児期曝露が仔マウスの全身および局所でのTh1/Th2免疫応答に及ぼす影響についてグラム陽性菌細胞壁成分ペプチドグリカン(PGN; peptidoglycan)との併用, 非併用下で検討した。その結果､5,50ppm トルエンのみもしくはPGN刺激との併用曝露は血中や脾臓においてTh1及びTh2型免疫応答に関係するいくつかの免疫パラメーター(総Ig抗体サブクラスの産生レベルや転写因子T-bet, GATA-3, Foxp3のmRNA発現等)をかく乱することを明らかした

Opportunities and Inplementation (A Case Study: Economic Development of Kyaukta Village, Sagaing Township)

The study on economic opportunities is a crucial one not only for economic development but also for all round development of the respective area. In this study, economic opportunities of a village are assessed by means of qualitative method. Due to good location and the given economic opportunities of the study area, people in Kyaukta village know well about different economic opportunities in addition to their traditional farming. By taking an interview to the local residents, the past, present and future economic development pattern could be portrayed systematically. Due to the great efforts of local people in their implementation processes, the different types of economic activities were found within one family. The results show that the economic activities for the individual household could be extracted from the minimum of one in one economic activity to the maximum of five in one household. This situation highlights the greater potentiality of the study area to be developed during the time frame of near future

Nanoparticles and Neurotoxicity

Humans are exposed to nanoparticles (NPs; diameter < 100 nm) from ambient air and certain workplaces. There are two main types of NPs; combustion-derived NPs (e.g., particulate matters, diesel exhaust particles, welding fumes) and manufactured or engineered NPs (e.g., titanium dioxide, carbon black, carbon nanotubes, silver, zinc oxide, copper oxide). Recently, there have been increasing reports indicating that inhaled NPs can reach the brain and may be associated with neurodegeneration. It is necessary to evaluate the potential toxic effects of NPs on brain because most of the neurobehavioral disorders may be of environmental origin. This review highlights studies on both combustion-derived NP- and manufactured or engineered NP-induced neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and gene expression, as well as the possible mechanism of these effects in animal models and in humans

Vision-Based Mobile Robot Self-localization and Mapping System for Indoor Environment

Localizing accurately and building map of an environment concurrently is a key factor of a mobile robot system. In this system, the robot makes localization and mapping with artificial landmarks and map-based system. It is a process by which a mobile robot can build a map of an environment while continuously determining the location of the robot within the map. The system estimates the robot position in indoor environments using sensors; a camera, three ultrasonic sensors and encoders. The main contribution of this paper is to reduce computational time and improve mapping with map-based system. The self-localization of mobile robot in an indoor environment is advanced through the construction of map based on sensors and recognition of artificial landmarks. Vision based localization system can benefit from using with ultrasonic sensors. From captured images, the system makes landmark detection by using Canny edge detection and Chain-code Approximation algorithms to represent the contour of landmarks by using edge points. The Kalman filter is aimed to accurately estimate position and orientation of the robot using relative distances to walls or artificial landmarks in environments. A robotic system is capable of mapping in an indoor environment and localizing with respect to the map, in real time, using artificial landmarks and sensors

An overview of chickpea breeding programs in Myanmar

Chickpea is an important legume in Myanmar, not only for local consumption but also for export earnings. Major chickpeaproducing area is the central dry zone which contributes 96% of the chickpea production. Kabuli chickpea is mainly grown for export, while desi chickpea is for local consumption. Eight improved varieties of chickpea (5 desi and 3 kabuli) have been released in Myanmar. The adoption of improved varieties and improved crop production practices has led to remarkable increase in chickpea yields and production