The trouble with separate collection of biowaste from households and restaurants is that it takes several days for biowaste to get from from the kitchen container to the public collection and after that to further processing. Because of the duration the constantly active microbes in the biowaste often make at least a portion of the biowaste unusable.
The Bioeconomy research group at the Häme University of Applied Sciences (HAMK) has developed an appliance, by which the microbe activity can be suspended already in the kitchen. The appliance cuts the biowaste into small pieces in a bag and sucks the air out of the bag. The method enables to maintain the bioenergy potential of biowaste for as long as possible before it is finally processed to recycled raw material or bioenergy.
The appliance has been tested in a restaurant close to HAMK. The invention is patented and development work is going further on.