Critical challenges and technological breakthroughs in food waste hydrolysis and detoxification for fuels and chemicals production

Abstract

Organic waste has increased as the global population and economy have grown exponentially. Food waste (FW) is posing a severe environmental issue because of mismanaged disposal techniques, which frequently result in the squandering of carbohydrate-rich feedstocks. In an advanced valorization strategy, organic material in FW can be used as a viable carbon source for microbial digestion and hence for the generation of value-added compounds. In comparison to traditional feedstocks, a modest pretreatment of the FW stream utilizing chemical, biochemical, or thermochemical techniques can extract bulk of sugars for microbial digestion. Pretreatment produces a large number of toxins and inhibitors that affect bacterial fuel and chemical conversion processes. Thus, the current review scrutinizes the FW structure, pretreatment methods (e.g., physical, chemical, physicochemical, and biological), and various strategies for detoxification before microbial fermentation into renewable chemical production. Technological and commercial challenges and future perspectives for FW integrated biorefineries have also been outlined.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Biofuels; Detoxification; Fermentation; Food waste; Pretreatment.