Page 37 - חוברת תזות הנדסה ירוקה 2023

Developing a method for processing human food wastes into animal nutrition
Gal Shraga1; Galshraga1992@gmail.com Dr. Saphier Magal2, Dr. Ilan Saphier Oshra1
1Shamoon Collage of Engineering 2Negev Nuclear Research Center
The world’s population is growing, and along with it, the demand for food is increasing. However, about a third of the world’s food, about 1.3 billion tons a year, is discarded as waste. This phenomenon has social, economic, and environmental effects, including the emission of many greenhouse gases, sanitary hazards, such as the spread of unpleasant odors, and more. This causes serious ecological damage and diminishes sustainability. Today, many methods for treating food wastes are being implemented, but most of them have considerable drawbacks. The most common methods for treating food wastes are: anaerobic digestion for industrial needs )energy recovery(; landfilling; and composting
)fertilizer(. The disadvantages of using the abovementioned methods are that they require: large areas of land, designated for waste treatment; cause greenhouse gas emissions; have high treatment costs; and do not utilize the good nutritional values of the waste foodstuff. One of the interesting ideas for waste treatment is the recycling and conversion of such waste into food for animals. This method enables the almost complete utilization of nutritional values and a considerable reduction of environmental pollution during the decay and/or burning processes. But the biggest challenge is converting food wastes into foods suitable for animal consumption without fear of causing food poisoning or the transmission of diseases. Food wastes have a high percentage of moisture, which provides a good substrate for the proliferation of microorganisms, making it difficult to collect, transport, and reduce possible storage time. The purpose of this study is to examine certain storage methods and to adapt chemical and engineering processes to obtain sterile, dry, and easily transportable foods for animals. On this basis, we propose a process for recycling food wastes for the purpose of feeding animals. The ultimate goal is to develop a compact, efficient facility designed for private homes, restaurants, or any institution that can convert food wastes into dry, sterile food products for omnivorous animals. Here, we tackled the challenge of pollutants by developing a dedicated, nontoxic solution for disinfecting food wastes, one that does not destroythe original nutrients. To that end, we developed an aqueous solution based on monovalent copper )Cu+(, a high-efficacy antibacterial and antifungal agent. Our solution consists of: bivalent copper )Cu2+(; acetonitrile )MeCN(, as a stabilizer for Cu+; and ascorbic acid, that recycles Cu2+ to Cu+. This solution has been found to be very effective disinfectant for several different groups of contaminants, such as: Escherichia coli, which
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