Glutamic Acid Production from Food Waste and Recycled Materials
Project Progress
Blending:
Three types of waste have been blended: a pre-consumer waste sample and two post-consumer waste samples from different dining halls.
Anaerobic Digestion:
Three anaerobic digestions have been run: one with the pre-consumer waste, and the second two with one of the post-consumer waste samples. The difference being the scale of the digestion and the additions to the reactors.
Acetic Acid Measurements:
Currently, we are running our anaerobic digestion samples through the HPLC. The results will be analyzed in the next couple of days.
Fermentation:
The bacteria has been grow. Fermentation experiments will begin as soon as the HPLC analysis is completed and a new anaerobic digestion is run.
Glutamic Acid
Measurements:
Once we are able to get the bacteria to produce glutamic acid, we will use Raman Spectroscopy to measure yields.
The Prelimary Design
Below is the optimized Process Flow Diagram (PFD) for the conversion of food waste to Glutamic acid. The key points from the PFD are the anaerobic digestion step and the fermentation step are the process bottlenecks and multiple filtration steps are used to purify glutamic acid. The Ion exchange column is the final purification step before drying the glutamic acid into a powder to be sold.
