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Review
. 2022 Jan;13(1):1249-1275.
doi: 10.1080/21655979.2021.1996044.

A Glimpse of the World of Volatile Fatty Acids Production and Application: A review

Swarnima Agnihotri  1 , Dong-Min Yin  2 , Amir Mahboubi  1 , Tugba Sapmaz  1   3 , Sunita Varjani  4 , Wei Qiao  2 , Derya Y Koseoglu-Imer  3 , Mohammad J Taherzadeh  1
Affiliations
Review

A Glimpse of the World of Volatile Fatty Acids Production and Application: A review

Swarnima Agnihotri et al. Bioengineered. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

Sustainable provision of chemicals and materials is undoubtedly a defining factor in guaranteeing economic, environmental, and social stability of future societies. Among the most sought-after chemical building blocks are volatile fatty acids (VFAs). VFAs such as acetic, propionic, and butyric acids have numerous industrial applications supporting from food and pharmaceuticals industries to wastewater treatment. The fact that VFAs can be produced synthetically from petrochemical derivatives and also through biological routes, for example, anaerobic digestion of organic mixed waste highlights their provision flexibility and sustainability. In this regard, this review presents a detailed overview of the applications associated with petrochemically and biologically generated VFAs, individually or in mixture, in industrial and laboratory scale, conventional and novel applications.

Keywords: Volatile fatty acids; anaerobic digestion; anaerobic digestion effluent; application and production of VFAS; individual and mixed VFAS.

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Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
The chart presenting specific applications of individual and mixed VFAs produced from petrochemicals and bio-based resources.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
An overview of mixed VFA production from organic waste, adapted from [132].
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
VFA production and lipid production process integration, adapted from [170,223].
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
General treatment technology of high nitrogen digestate.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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