Food waste valorization: Energy production using novel integrated systems

Abstract

Management of food waste (FW) is a global challenge due to increasing population and economic activities. Presently, landfill and incineration are the keyways of FW management, while economical and environmental sustainability have been an issue. Therefore, the biological processes have been investigated for resource and energy recovery from FW. However, these biological approaches have certain drawbacks and cannot be a complete solution for FW management. Therefore, this review aims to offer a detailed and complete analysis of current available technologies to achieve environmental and economical sustainability. In this context, zero solid waste discharge for resource and energy recovery has been put into view. Corresponding to which several innovative technologies using integrated biological methods for resource and energy recovery from FW have been elucidated.

Keywords: Bioeconomy; Food waste; Integrated biological processes; Sustainability; Zero-solid waste.