Annually between 118 and 138 million tons of organic waste is generated worldwide, with waste from the food production and distribution chain representing 100 million tons of the total. Only about 25% of all this vital waste is collected and recycled. The remaining 75% is simply discarded, which represents a huge loss of potential resources and significant damage to the environment.
One of the drivers of the circular economy is turning waste into resources (or “monetizing rubbish” in the most recent term). When waste comes from biomass, it is part of a circular bioeconomy. The topic was explored in a recent article on advanced materials.
“In our group, we have seen waste and residues of different types as raw materials for more than a decade. We have conducted a critical review of the literature and re-established state-of-the-art science in strategies for converting agricultural food waste and waste into bioplastics,” said Kaew Gumed Otoni, first author of the article. advanced. We looked for arguments not to do so but found none. It’s a win-win for both parties.” Otoni is a professor in the Department of Materials Engineering at the Federal University of São Carlos (DEMA-UFSCar), in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and author of a group called maTREErials.
As an alternative to the more rural and more environmentally harmful recycling of agro-industrial waste as livestock feed, for example, the study shows that biomass that is disposed of or not sufficiently used can serve as a low-cost raw material for bioplastics and advanced usable materials in a range of Wide range of high value-added devices.
Applications range from multifunctional packaging with antiviral, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties to flexible electronic equipment, biomedical devices, power generation, storage and transportation equipment, sensors, thermal and acoustic insulation, and cosmetics, among many others.
“The relationship between food and energy is closely related to the circular bioeconomy. We set out to offer the most advanced strategies for dismantling agri-food waste, converting the result into mono-, polymeric and colloidal building blocks, and synthesizing advanced materials on it,” said Daniel Sousa-Core, author of the penultimate article. Correa is a researcher at the National Laboratory for Agribusiness Nanotechnology (LNNA), an arm of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Foundation (EMBRAPA) in São Carlos, and professor of chemistry and biotechnology at UFSCar.
Turning food waste into advanced industrial “greens” is an emerging policy option in most developed countries, as evidenced by the European Green Deal. “The circular bioeconomy maximizes the use of lateral and residual flows from agriculture, food processing and forestry-based industries, thus reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills,” the European Commission’s official website states on the programme.
An article by Otoni et al. He argues that if the stratosphere is considered a boundary, there is no such thing as a “disposal”. Turning waste into useful resources is a rational alternative to littering the planet.
“The complex and heterogeneous composition of biomass derived from food loss and waste poses technological and economic challenges,” Otoni said. “We have to address what we might call a ‘biomass rebellion against decomposition.’ Another detrimental factor is the seasonality of agro-industrial production. Certain types of waste are abundant at certain times of the year and scarce at other times. Even when they are available, their composition It is usually variable.But the main obstacle to large-scale recycling [creatively recycling materials into new products with more environmental value] It is political in nature. We hope that startups and highly innovative companies can overcome these barriers and move the process forward.”
Technological ways to do this exist, as the article explains. Its authors have already perfected it on a laboratory scale, or, depending on the case, on a quasi-experimental or experimental scale. “Several examples can be cited, including the production of materials from waste mangoes, bananas, wheat and cashews, among many others,” said Henriette Monteiro Cordeiro de Azeredo, also a co-author and researcher at LNNA-EMBRAPA.
In the images at the top of this page, the material from minimally invasive processing of carrots on a quasi-experimental scale in LNNA is an example of the potential to convert food waste into bioplastics.
The researchers have also produced antimicrobial foam from sugar cane, packages containing chitin extracted from the exoskeletons of crustaceans and insects, and emulsion stabilizing particles with potential applications in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and paints.
As can be seen, this research shows strong links to the economy of a country like Brazil, the largest producer of sugarcane and oranges in the world, and a major producer of many other food crops. It should also be noted that a very important source of food loss and waste is associated with fruits and vegetables: about a third of the total amount produced is lost from one end of the chain to the other.
“A significant proportion of food lost and wasted contains high levels of vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein, all of which can ideally be converted into food,” Ottoni said. “However, most of them are categorized as unsuitable and rejected on the basis of microbiological and sensory criteria. Hence the alternative of turning waste into chemical platforms and useful materials with potential applications in high value-added appliances. Food waste, food producers are really interested in valuing these flows.”
An example is the edible bioplastic developed by Luiz Henrique Capparelli Mattoso, one of the pioneers of this research at LNNA-EMBRAPA. The research is conducted in a network, with contributions from dozens of researchers in this specific field. Other co-authors of the article are Bruno Matos, a researcher at Aalto University in Finland. Marco Beaumont, Researcher at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna, Austria; and Orlando Rojas, director of the Institute for Bioproducts at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
According to Matus, “The quality of building blocks obtained from waste biomass is the same as that of more pure, less processed sources, such as cotton or paper pulp. However, waste contains many other residual particles, such as pectin and lignin, which provide A larger palette of properties that can be explored to introduce functionality in bioplastics.”
Kerosene production from bio- bypass currents
more information:
Kayo G. Otuni et al., The Nutrient Nexus: The Next Generation of Bioplastics and Advanced Materials from Agrifood Residues, advanced materials (2021). DOI: 10.1002 / adma.202102520