Food waste biomass: a resource for high-value chemicals

03 Jan 2013

Today’s society currently faces two big challenges in the form of resource depletion and waste accumulation. The result of this is increased cost of raw resources and increasingly restrictive and expensive waste disposal.

In this perspective article, James Clark and colleagues evaluate the potential of food waste biomass as a resource for high-value chemicals. The team begin at looking at food supply chain waste (FSCW) as a renewable resource more generally, focusing on the practicalities of using such resources and their availability. In the latter half of the perspective, Clark looks at a biorefinery concept using citrus fruit waste and shows that this is a potentially cost-effective alternative to produce valuable chemicals.

Clark emphasises throughout the article that it is important to go beyond first generation waste valorisation and so we must try to make use of all the valuable components of the waste. You can see Professor Clark’s recent lecture on this topic on The Reaction website, given at the Chemistry Centre in October.

Read the full article for free until the 4th February 2013!

Food waste biomass: a resource for high-value chemicals, Lucie A. Pfaltzgraff, Mario De bruyn, Emma C. Cooper, Vitaly Budarin and James H. Clark, Green Chem., 2013, DOI: 10.1039/C2GC36978H