Glossary

This glossary gives an overview on terms used in the area of biowaste utilisation and it only includes small paragraphs and definitions on the listed topics. o get more information on some of these these topics, please use the links to the articles (if given).

B

Biowaste, bio-waste, biodegradable waste

Bio-waste is defined as biodegradable garden and park waste, food and kitchen waste from households, restaurants, caterers and retail premises, and comparable waste from food processing plants. It does not include forestry or agricultural residues, manure, sewage sludge, or other biodegradable waste such as natural textiles, paper or processed wood. It also excludes those by-products of food production that never become waste.

D

Decomposer

Any micro-organism, funghi or small animal small animal that causes organic material to undergo biological or chemical breakdown.

F

Feedstock

Feedstock generally means a unprocessed raw material, that is used to produce something. It is basic material used to produce goods, finished products, energy, or intermediate materials that are feedstock for future finished products. In case of this project bio-waste is defined as a feedstock to be used and utilised via different conversion processes to produce energy, materials or other products.

M

Municipal solid waste (MSW)

MSW is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. In the European Union, the semantic definition is mixed municipal waste, given waste code 20 03 01 in the European Waste Catalog. Although the waste may originate from a number of sources that has nothing to do with a municipality, the traditional role of municipalities in collecting and managing these kinds of waste have produced the particular etymology.

P

Pyrolysis

Pyrolysis (from greek pyr, "fire" and lysis, "loosing/unbind") is a conversion technology that utilises a thermochemical process to convert organic compounds in presence of heat and absence of oxygen into valuable products which can be solid, liquid or gaseous. The chemical transformations of substances are generally accompanied by the breaking of chemical bonds which leads to the conversion of more complex molecules into simpler molecules which may also combine with each other to build up larger molecules again. The products of pyrolysis are usually not the actual building blocks of the decomposed substance, but are structurally modified (e.g. by cyclization and aromatisation or rearrangement).

Links

• Wipe Out Waste (WOW)
• UW Tech
• ...