A critical review on food waste management for the production of materials and biofuel
Aparajita Lahiri, D. Santhanaraj, K. Rajakumar, V. Ramkumar, T. Adinaveen, Leema Peter
Abstract
Increasing demand for fuels and chemicals, exacerbated by factors such as overpopulation, the threat of global warming, and the scarcity of fossil resources, puts a strain on our resource system and necessitates the development of sustainable and innovative chemical industry strategies. Due to the abundance of food waste that have been generated globally, food supply chain waste has emerged as a resource with significant potential for use as a raw material in the production of fuels and chemicals. In general, food wastes can be classified into various categories depending upon their nature, i.e., they can be "intentional" or "unintentional", and on the other hand, they can also be classified as "avoidable", "partially avoidable" and "unavoidable". The complete study focuses on the entire realm of food wastage and the major highlight of this review article is the recent development of textile and biofuels areas to bring the novel technologies that are now being employed to valorize food waste products to yield other useful products. This article also iterates about the use of such practices (e.g., production of fiber materials and biofuels from food wastes) and their significance is not just in making complete use of food products or products that are related to food, but it also implies the positive effects that these have on the environment and the economy in general. The prospects and perspectives on the management of various fruit wastes for real-time practical application for future generations are also highlighted.