Food waste as a source of sustainable energy: Technical, economical, environmental and regulatory feasibility analysis

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a viable technique to address food waste (FW) problems by converting FW into sustainable energy. Despite the advantages of the AD process, large-scale AD plants like in Germany and the USA have not been developed in Australia. Therefore, this paper aims to study the technological, economic, and environmental feasibility of sustainable energy production from household FW in Australia. In addition, this paper discusses the different waste to energy (WtE) technologies along with the operational parameters as well as the challenges in developing a biogas plant. The energy and economic potential analysis of the AD process indicates that the processing of 10% FW from Australian states and territories can generate 1.22 GWh to 35.4 GWh electricity which can subsequently earn AUD 0.54 million to AUD 15.7 million in revenue per year. The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions analysis indicates that conversion of the 10% of Australian FW has the potential to lower GHG emissions by 639,852 tonnes per annum. Hence, it can be said that FW plays a vital role as a promising source of sustainable energy and is capable of benefiting the country's economy significantly and reducing GHG emissions.