Food or edible material: processes – compositions – and products – Fermentation processes
Reexamination Certificate
2002-04-30
2004-03-09
Sayala, C. (Department: 1761)
Food or edible material: processes, compositions, and products
Fermentation processes
C426S052000, C426S053000, C426S056000, C426S060000, C426S807000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06703054
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a novel method for treating organic wastes, and more specifically relates to a method for producing a feed by using organic wastes and oils as the raw materials to form a koji-fermented feed.
Additionally, the present invention relates to a method for treating highly concentrated organic wastes with a BOD of at least 10,000 ppm such as sake lees and food scraps, and further relates to a crude fiber feed comprising a ligneous matrix obtained by treatment with the above-described treatment method.
In recent years, the problem of how to treat waste from the food processing industry or highly concentrated organic waste such as food scraps has become one which has bearings on the public health. This is because they contain large amounts of water and are perishable, generating malodorous fumes in the process. While this type of waste is usually simply discarded, the burial of these substances results in their decay in the soil, producing large amounts of nitrate-nitrogen which can contaminate ground water. Additionally, if incinerated, they can generate dioxins and NOX, which can pollute the atmosphere. Moreover, the amount of such organic waste is increasing annually at an alarming pace.
Therefore, many methods of fermenting organic waste to make fertilizer or methods for treating waste for decomposition in order to enable larger amounts of waste to be collected and recycled have been proposed in recent years, but with conventional methods, the treatments can take months, and their utility has been limited due to the risk of saline pollution when used in large amounts because of the salt content in the resulting fertilizers. Furthermore, such waste often has a high water content, making storage and transport difficult. As a result, this type of waste has not been able to be used effectively.
On the other hand, there are methods for making such raw garbage into fertilizer using microbes, but such microbes are not very compatible with garbage having a high oil content, so that there are limits to the range of raw waste that can be treated in this manner.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and has a first object of offering a novel means for making effective use of the above-described organic wastes.
The present invention has the further object of offering a method for producing a feed by efficiently processing the above-described organic wastes.
The present invention also has the object of offering a feed produced by the above method.
The second object of the present invention is to offer a method for treating organic wastes such as sake lees and food scraps, especially highly concentrated organic wastes with a BOD of at least 10,000 ppm, with extreme efficiency in a short period of time.
Another object of the present invention is to offer a method for treating an organic waste capable of converting a large amount of waste into a readily disposable form, and use of a substances treated in this way.
As a result of diligent research towards achieving these objects, the present applicant discovered that if oils are added when treating organic waste with certain molds, the molds can transform the oils into fuel and efficiently convert them into the heat of fermentation. That is, they found that by employing oils as energy sources for the molds to dramatically improve the decomposition and drying speed of the organic matter due to the mold, it is possible to efficiently treat organic wastes. Additionally, more surprisingly, they discovered that when ammonia gas and acetic acid are generated, the generation thereof can be prevented by mixing in some oils, that is, the addition of oils can inhibit the proliferation of putrefying bacteria such as acetic bacteria.
The present invention offers a method for treating organic wastes, comprising steps of mixing said organic wastes with a mold to obtain a mixture, and allowing said mixture to ferment and dry, wherein the oil content of said mixture is at least 2 wt %, preferably at least 5 wt %, more preferably at least 10 wt % with respect to the water content of said mixture. In this way, the heat of fermentation of the mold can be used to efficiently dry the wastes.
According to a first object of the present invention, a feed is produced by adjusting the oil content of a mixture of organic wastes and koji mold or koji to at least 3 wt %, preferably at least 5 wt %, more preferably at least 10 wt %, and allowing said mixture to ferment and dry. Preferably, the feed is produced by mixing together organic wastes, oils, koji mold or koji, and allowing the koji mold to ferment and dry the waste.
By adding oils as nutrients in this way, the processing speed of organic wastes, in particular highly concentrated organic wastes can be highly improved.
Furthermore, according to this type of method, raw garbage, livestock excrement and the like which has conventionally been discarded can be effectively used.
Furthermore, since the method of the present invention makes use of koji mold instead of treatments using high temperature microbes, so that while a portion of the organic matter is decomposed into carbon dioxide and water, the most part is synthesized into microbial proteins, while large amounts of digestive enzymes are secreted for digestive consumption. As a result, a feed of high nutritional value which is suitable for feeding to livestock and the like is obtained. That is, while the treatment of organic waste by microbes has conventionally been for the purpose of breaking down wastes, the method according to the present invention enables the generation of active ingredients by the koji mold, thereby changing the organic waste into feed which can then be put to effective use.
In the present invention, oils are used in order to produce a feed fermented by koji mold from organic wastes. Conventionally, the fermentation and heat generation due to koji mold has been mainly used for decomposition of starches, but in the present invention, the oils are used to assist largely in the fermentation and heat generation. Since the koji mold can consume the oils and efficiently convert them to the heat of fermentation, there is no particular need to add nutrients for growth of the koji mold, and the oils act as an energy source to dramatically increase the speed of decomposition and drying of the wastes. Therefore, there is no need to specially add starchy materials even to wastes such as raw garbage with a low starch equivalent. Furthermore, since there are few microbes that can consume oils in nature, the koji mold, which is relatively susceptible to contamination with other microbes, can be grown with dominance. The adjustment of the oil content should preferably be done by intermixing oils, the amount of oils normally added being preferably at least 1.5 wt %, more preferably at least 5 wt %, and most preferably at least 10 wt % of the water content of the mixed organic waste.
The oils used in the present invention can be of any type as long as they are able to achieve the object of the present invention, and can be chosen from among animal, vegetable or mineral oils, or combinations thereof. Some examples are those which are readily available, including edible oils such as frying oil, lard, soy oil, waste oil from meat processing or olive oil, or cutting oils, with those having a boiling point of at least 100° C. being most preferable. When preparing a feed, edible oils are preferable.
Additionally, the mold in the present invention refers to filamentous eukaryotic microbes (molds), particularly Aspergillus, Monascus, Mucor and Rhizopus, of which Aspergillus and/or Monascus are chosen with preference for having amylase and lipase activity, further among which
Aspergillus oryzze kawachii
and
Aspergillus awamori kawachii
(available from Kirishima Kogen Beer KK) have a high oil-decomposing ability and can be used effectively. Normally, oils are avoided due to the inability of conventional fertilizer plants to p
Pearne & Gordon LLP
Sayala C.
Yamamoto Masahiro
LandOfFree
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