Poster Presentation 3-21

 

Enzymatic Digestibility of Used Newspaper Treated with

Aqueous Ammonia-Hydrogen Peroxide Solution on a Shaker Bath

 

Sung Bae Kim and Nam Kyu Moon

 

Division of Applied Chemical Engineering and ERI

Gyeongsang National University, Chinju 660-701 Korea

 

Telephone:  +82-55-751-5385; Fax :  +82-55-753-1806; E-mail:  sb_kim@nongae.gsnu.ac.kr

 

Approximately half of municipal solid waste is waste paper, which could be a potential resource for bioenergy.  Newspaper was pretreated with ammonia or an ammonia-hydrogen peroxide mixture in a shaking bath at room temperature to 80oC, and then its enzymatic digestibility was measured.  A significant amount of printed ink was removed from newspaper and separated from newspaper slurry by reciprocating movement on the shaker bath, which gives a kind of flotation effect.  Also, hydrogen peroxide used in conjunction with the ammonia significantly enhanced the swelling of the substrate, resulting in greatly increased susceptibility of enzymatic digestion.  After pretreatment at 40oC, 3 hours, 130 strokes, and 4% ammonia-2% hydrogen peroxide, the digestibility approached almost 90% of theoretical value.  This value was about 25% higher than that of untreated substrate.  Also, digestibility was investigated as a function of ammonia concentration, hydrogen peroxide concentration, shaking speed, pretreatment temperature, and time.

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