2.1 Summarize of raw materials and inoculum
Food waste was sampled from the students’ canteen during lunchtime in
China Agricultural University every 2-3 weeks. Unsuitable materials,
including bones, plastic, and chopsticks etc, were picked out by hand in
laboratory and then the food waste was shattered with a blender (Joyoung
JYLC012, China) for 5 minutes and stored in plastic bottles at 4°C.
Maize straw was crushed by a small grinder (HC-1000Y2, China), sieved
using a 40 mm sieve and stored. The inoculum was initially collected
from an operated anaerobic plant with feedstock of cornstalk under
thermophilic condition. The basic characteristics of food waste, maize
straw and inoculum are shown in Table (1).