Life cycle inventory assessment and economic loss analysis for brown grease recycling in a food processing factory

Abstract

The environmental and economic viability of recycling brown grease (BG) in a Japanese food processing factory was assessed via oil and fat flow analysis, life cycle inventory analysis of oil-fat recovery equipment (OFRE), and economic loss evaluation. After installation in a food processing factory that discharges wastewater (oil and fat concentration: 2,100 mg/L; wastewater volume: 21.1 m³/d), the OFRE enabled biomass utilization of BG and increased the oil and fat resource rate from 0 % to 63.9 %. Additionally, using refined oil and fat from BG as an alternative to heavy oil A reduced CO_2eq emissions by 11.1 t-CO_2eq/year. Labor and odor control costs also decreased, resulting in a reduction of 51,387 JPY/(t year) in economic loss.