Food Waste to Energy: An Overview of Sustainable Approaches for Food Waste Management and Nutrient Recycling

Abstract

Food wastage and its accumulation are becoming a critical problem around the globe due to continuous increase of the world population. The exponential growth in food waste is imposing serious threats to our society like environmental pollution, health risk, and scarcity of dumping land. There is an urgent need to take appropriate measures to reduce food waste burden by adopting standard management practices. Currently, various kinds of approaches are investigated in waste food processing and management for societal benefits and applications. Anaerobic digestion approach has appeared as one of the most ecofriendly and promising solutions for food wastes management, energy, and nutrient production, which can contribute to world's ever-increasing energy requirements. Here, we have briefly described and explored the different aspects of anaerobic biodegrading approaches for food waste, effects of cosubstrates, effect of environmental factors, contribution of microbial population, and available computational resources for food waste management researches.

Anaerobic Digestion Process of Food Waste for Biogas Production: A Simulation Approach

“…Food waste is a promising substrate to produce biogas through the AD process due to its high energy content and large quantity as reported by Paritosh et al [21]. Food waste is a promising substrate to produce biogas through the AD process due to its high energy content and large quantity as reported by Paritosh et al [21].…”

Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste: Overview of Treatment Methodologies to Enhance Anaerobic Biodegradability

“…Researchers associated with the treatment techniques of OFMSW have mostly opted for thermal, chemical and mechanical processes accounting for 24, 21, and 33% respectively (Mata-Alvarez et al, 2014). Hydrolysis phase is the most decisive step for the overall performance of the biogas digester as in this phase conversion of complex compounds to oligomeric and monomeric units occurs (Rafique et al, 2010;Paritosh et al, 2017a) and it may limit the rate of the subsequent reactions. Also, bromatology of OFMSW plays a substantial role in the hydrolysis rate owing to varying properties of diverse substrates ( Table 1).…”

Towards Sustainable Development: A Review of Green Technologies

“…The government-supported solid waste management schemes have resulted in the creation of innovative technologies that reduce waste generation [5,15].…”

“…Also, as the waste breaks into these landfills, the production of GHG emissions such as carbon dioxide and methane increases [17,18]. The technology used in waste management differ in developing and developed countries, rural to urban areas, and residential to industrial zones [8,15]. The old technologies adopted by waste recovery industries saw the waste disposed of in the landfill's compost to form fertilizers.…”

“…The old technologies adopted by waste recovery industries saw the waste disposed of in the landfill's compost to form fertilizers. However, the latest green innovations have led to the development of aerobic digesters such as bioreactors that encompass in-vessel treatment of waste [15]. The new advancements in technologies not only does it manage waste but act as a source of renewable energy.…”