Techno-economic evaluation of refining of food supply chain wastes for the production of chemicals and biopolymers

Abstract

The development of sustainable and efficient refining of food supply chain wastes is dependent on the production of various end-products with diversifying market outlets and the identification of cost-effective processing schemes. Design and costing of proposed biorefinery concepts is essential in order to identify those processes that could be implemented on industrial scale. The successful implementation of microbial bioconversion of renewable resources for the production of chemicals and biopolymers is highly dependent on the development of cost-competitive biorefinery concepts. The recent literature on techno-economic assessment of food supply chain waste biorefining is presented. One detailed case study is presented focusing on the techno-economic evaluation of refining of orange peel wastes.