A critical review on pretreatment and detoxification techniques required for biofuel production from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste

Farinaz Ebrahimian; Joeri F M Denayer; Ali Mohammadi; Benyamin Khoshnevisan; Keikhosro Karimi

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128316

A critical review on pretreatment and detoxification techniques required for biofuel production from the organic fraction of municipal solid waste

Bioresour Technol. 2023 Jan:368:128316. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128316. Epub 2022 Nov 11.

Authors

Farinaz Ebrahimian¹, Joeri F M Denayer², Ali Mohammadi³, Benyamin Khoshnevisan⁴, Keikhosro Karimi⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran; Department of Engineering and Chemical Sciences, Karlstad University, 65188 Karlstad, Sweden.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Brussels, Belgium.
³ Department of Engineering and Chemical Sciences, Karlstad University, 65188 Karlstad, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Biotechnology, and Environmental Technology, University of Southern Denmark, Denmark.
⁵ Department of Chemical Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran; Department of Chemical Engineering, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 1050 Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: karimi@cc.iut.ac.ir.

PMID: 36375700
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128316

Abstract

The organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) is a widely-available promising feedstock for biofuel production. However, the presence of different inhibitors originating from fruit and food/beverage wastes as well as recalcitrant lignocellulosic fractions hampers its bioconversion. This necessitates a pretreatment to augment the biodigestibility and fermentability of OFMSW. Hence, this review aims to provide the in-vogue inhibitory compound removal and pretreatment techniques that have been employed for efficient OFMSW conversion into biofuels, i.e., hydrogen, biogas, ethanol, and butanol. The techniques are compared concerning their mode of action, chemical and energy consumption, inhibitor formation and removal, economic feasibility, and environmental sustainability. This critique also reviews the existing knowledge gap and future perspectives for efficient OFMSW valorization. The insights provided pave the way toward developing energy-resilient cities while addressing environmental crises related to generating OFMSW.

Keywords: Bioenergy; Biorefinery; Biowaste; Inhibitor removal; Organic fraction of municipal solid waste.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
Biofuels / analysis
Bioreactors
Fruit / chemistry
Methane
Refuse Disposal* / methods
Solid Waste* / analysis

Substances

Solid Waste
Biofuels
Methane