Production of bioplastic through food waste valorization

Yiu Fai TSANG, Vanish KUMAR, Pallabi SAMADAR, Yi YANG, Jechan LEE, Yong Sik OK, Hocheol SONG, Ki-Hyun KIM, Eilhann E. KWON, Young Jae JEON

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

374 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The tremendous amount of food waste from diverse sources is an environmental burden if disposed of inappropriately. Thus, implementation of a biorefinery platform for food waste is an ideal option to pursue (e.g., production of value-added products while reducing the volume of waste). The adoption of such a process is expected to reduce the production cost of biodegradable plastics (e.g., compared to conventional routes of production using overpriced pure substrates (e.g., glucose)). This review focuses on current technologies for the production of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) from food waste. Technical details were also described to offer clear insights into diverse pretreatments for preparation of raw materials for the actual production of bioplastic (from food wastes). In this respect, particular attention was paid to fermentation technologies based on pure and mixed cultures. A clear description on the chemical modification of starch, cellulose, chitin, and caprolactone is also provided with a number of case studies (covering PHA-based products) along with a discussion on the prospects of food waste valorization approaches and their economic/technical viability. Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)625-644
JournalEnvironment International
Volume127
Early online dateApr 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2019

Citation

Tsang, Y. F., Kumar, V., Samadar, P., Yang, Y., Lee, J., Ok, Y. S., . . . Jeon, Y. J. (2019). Production of bioplastic through food waste valorization. Environment International, 127, 625-644. doi: 10.1016/j.envint.2019.03.076

Keywords

  • Food waste
  • Valorization
  • Biorefinery
  • Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA)
  • Biopolymer
  • Bioplastic
  • PG student publication

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