Valorisation of Food Waste using biotechnology
Linsey Garcia-Gonzalez, ViTo: PRESENTATION ONLY
(free)
As opposed to common practices like composting, recycling and burning, advanced food waste valorisation strategies are more appealing from both the practical, economic and sustainability viewpoints in that these can generate multiple products from a single feedstock using biotechnological approaches. This contribution will focus on the conversion and separation in an integrated way using a cascade-type approach for maximal exploitation of the food waste. This cascade approach respects the marketable value of products and comprises the following steps:
1) Characterization of the food waste to determine which compounds are present in the food waste and which valuable products can be produced from them
2) Mild extraction of added value compounds
3) Conversion of extracted compounds and organic waste stream to chemicals using enzymatic conversion/hydrolysis and fermentation technology
4) Conversion of the residual organic waste stream to chemicals and energy with bioelectrochemical system
5) Anaerobic digestion
The state-of-the art of the different steps discussed in detail. In addition, to illustrate the potential of waste valorization for the production of chemicals, several case studies from the projects Sustainable Production of Functional and Safe Feed from Food Waste (FP7 EU project), Integrating biotreated wastewater reuse and valorization with enhanced water use efficiency to support the Green Economy in EU and India (FP 7 EU project), Resource Efficient and Safe Food Production and Processing (FP 7 EU project), Resource innovation Network for European Waste (Interreg project), New Opportunities for Waste (Flanders’ FOOD), Integration of Bio-Conversion and Separation Technology for the production and application of platform chemicals from 2nd generation biomass (FP 7 EU project) highlighted.
