Fe₂O₃@D201 Enhanced Efficiency of Food Waste Degradation by Microbial Inoculum Under Aerobic Condition

The global quantity of food waste (FW) is increasing at an alarming rate, making safe disposal a pressing issue in urban management. The inappropriate disposal of FW will put risks on health and environment. Aerobic degradation equipment has emerged as a promising solution for FW disposal by adding microbial agents. However, current equipment faces challenges such as long processing duration and low efficiency. Therefore, we investigated the impact of combining microbial agents with iron oxide nano-resin (Fe₂O₃@D201) on the aerobic degradation of FW. We conducted experiments using 10% microbial agents supplemented with 6% Fe₂O₃@D201 for FW degradation. Compared to the control group containing 10% microbial agents, the Fe₂O₃@D201-treated group showed higher levels of dissolved COD in the leachate, reaching 1.59 × 10⁵ mg/L. Furthermore, the microbial hydrolytic enzyme activities in FW of this group surpassed those of the control group, with cellulase activity peaking at 0.13 U compared to the control group's peak of 0.06 U. Through 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, we found that Fe₂O₃@D201 significantly enriched the abundance of Bacillus, which are commonly known for their hydrolysis functions. The results indicated that Fe₂O₃@D201 enhanced FW degradation by promoting the abundance of specialized microorganisms, and thus increased the hydrolytic enzyme activity, promoting the conversion of solid macromolecules into soluble organic matter. Consequently, Fe₂O₃@D201 shows potential for application in FW treatment equipment.