Valorisation of food waste via hydrothermal carbonisation and techno-economic feasibility assessment

Najam Ul Saqib; Hari Bhakta Sharma; Saeid Baroutian; Brajesh Dubey; Ajit K Sarmah

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.484

Valorisation of food waste via hydrothermal carbonisation and techno-economic feasibility assessment

Sci Total Environ. 2019 Nov 10:690:261-276. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.484. Epub 2019 Jul 2.

Authors

Najam Ul Saqib¹, Hari Bhakta Sharma², Saeid Baroutian³, Brajesh Dubey², Ajit K Sarmah⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Faulty of Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand.
² Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology - Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal 721302, India.
³ Department of Chemical & Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, The University of Auckland, 1010, New Zealand.
⁴ Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Faulty of Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, New Zealand. Electronic address: a.sarmah@auckland.ac.nz.

PMID: 31288117
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.484

Abstract

Food waste constitutes a remarkable portion of municipal solid waste. About one-third of the global food waste produced is lost with the food supply chain. Food waste in many countries is still dumped of in landfill or incinerated simultaneously with other municipal wastes. Food waste requires proper management and recycling techniques in order to minimise its environmental burden and risk to human life. Despite considerable research on food waste conversion still, there is a shortage of comprehensive reviews of the published literature. In this review, we provide a mini global perspective of food waste with special emphasis on New Zealand and their conversion into the useful material through hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC). Other thermal technologies such as incineration and pyrolysis are also briefly discussed. The review discusses why HTC is more suitable thermal technology than others, which are currently available. Recognising the importance of techno-economic feasibility of HTC, we present a cost analysis on the production of value-added products via HTC with examples taken from the literature to gather information in the feasibility assessment process. Finally, key challenges and future directions for a better productive way of handling food waste are being suggested.

Keywords: Global food waste; Hydrochar; Hydrothermal carbonisation; Techno-economic assessment; Thermal conversion.

Publication types

Review