Citation:
Wagland ST, Smith R, Godley AR, et al., (2011) Development and application of an Enzymatic Hydrolysis test to assess the biodegradability of organic waste material. Proceedings of the Eleventh International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium. S. Margherita di Pula, 1-5 October 2007, Cagliari, Italy. Paper 415
Abstract:
A novel and rapid biodegradability test method has been developed based on the
enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose. The test method consists of three phases, in
which the first two phases consist of the pH buffer addition, and then
autoclaving of the mixture and the final phase is the addition of the enzyme
mixture and incubation. An initial investigation was carried out to determine
the optimum conditions for the enzymes using standard commercial cellulose as
the substrate. The optimised test was then applied to a wide range of organic
waste samples including untreated and treated MSW derived mixed BMW, and
specific wastes such as waste wood, packaging waste (cardboard), turkey feathers
and green waste. The DOC released by enzymatic hydrolysis indicates that this
could give an indication of the sample biodegradability. However the DOC
released in phases 1 and 2 may also contain some biodegradable components
(depending on the extent of biological treatment applied to the waste sample)
and these would need to be differentiated from the non-biodegradable DOC and
used together with the DOC from phase 3 to give the best possible
biodegradability indication.