Domestic biowaste drying as a pretreatment method to produce a stabilised biological resource

The results of the use of the domestic biowaste drying method forthe effective dehydration of the OFHMSW and the production oflignocellulosic biomass from this waste fraction are presented within thisarticle. It presents the methodology and results produced from the firstlaboratory operation of a prototype household waste dehydration unit for thedrying of household biowaste at source through the effective removal of itswater content by using the heated air-drying process. The use of domesticdehydration technique revealed the substantial mass reduction that reached amaximum of 78%w/w, while the final product’s carbohydrate content andsuggests its further use to produce biobased chemicals and bioenergy.39.99%w/w of the target material, more than 40%w/w of the material may beconverted into sugars through fermentation and from there to ethanol.Moreover, 36.11 of the already existing sugars have the potential to be directlyfermented to ethanol. Finally, considering a cost of 0.071 euro/kWh which isthe mean value cost per kWh for the Greek household and energy consumptionof 1,001–1,200 kWh which is also the average consumption of the Greekhousehold, the maximum monthly cost for a family and a 24h operation wascalculated to be 7.2 euros.