Experiences with Source-Separated Organics Processing and Anaerobic Digestion at the City of Toronto Disco Road SSO Facility

The City of Toronto Disco Road Source-Separated Organics (SSO) processing and digestion facility has been in operation since early 2014 processing nearly 75,000 wet tonnes per year of residential food waste. This paper provides an overview of the facility and summarizes the operational experiences and performance data; specifically, the mass of inert debris separated from the SSO prior to digestion, nutrient and inorganic content of the SSO dry solids (N, P, Na, K, Cl), volatile solids destruction efficiency through mesophilic anaerobic digestion, digestate dewatering issues, dewatered cake quality and centrate quality and treatability. Since other standalone SSO or SSO/municipal sludge co-digestion facilities will be built or operated in the next few years in North America, the data from the Disco Road facility will be informative and alert designers to specific design and performance issues that may impact equipment or process selection.