Present scenario and future scope of food waste to biofuel production
Sunny Dhiman, Gunjan Mukherjee
Abstract
Abstract Food waste is the outcome of different food processing practices that have not been reused and are disposed of as waste. Food wastes are rich in a wide variety of organic constituents including starches, proteins, oils, fats, phosphates, nutrients, amino acids, and natural acids. Food waste is a zero‐value and nonconsumable resource. In this context, the valorization of food waste to different sorts of biofuels, for example, biodiesel, bioethanol, biohydrogen, bio‐oil, biochar, and biomethane by employing well‐structured and efficient valorization technologies can be an attractive and viable approach to counter the current global energy crisis and in establishing a sustainable bioeconomy. This type of food waste management not only resolves the serious pollution problem but also helps to reduce the dependency of the energy sector on fossil fuels. This review discusses the characteristics of food waste, common strategies for food waste management, food waste as a feedstock, biofuels as a renewable energy source, valorization of food waste to various types of biofuels, microbes‐assisted valorization of food waste, biofuels and bioeconomy, and future scope and challenges in the valorization of food waste to biofuels.