Characterisation of particles from food waste disposers and their expected behaviour in sewers

Food waste disposers (FWD) offer a potential alternative to curb-side collection of food waste, allowing for energy recovery through anaerobic digestion at wastewater treatment plants. A thorough characterisation of the particles produced by FWD is needed to ascertain the impact on sewer networks. This study presents initial characterisation of particle sizes and settling velocities for particles emitted by a FWD. The results give a particle size distribution for the tested food groups and shows increasing settling velocities with increasing particle sizes.