Sustainable management of food waste; pre-treatment strategies, techno-economic assessment, bibliometric analysis, and potential utilizations: A systematic review

Food waste (FW) contains many nutritional components such as proteins, lipids, fats, polysaccharides, carbo-hydrates, and metal ions, which can be reused in some processes to produce value-added products. Furthermore, FW can be converted into biogas, biohydrogen, and biodiesel, and this type of green energy can be used as an alternative to nonrenewable fuel and reduce reliance on fossil fuel sources. It has been demonstrated in many reports that at the laboratory scale production of biochemicals using FW is as good as pure carbon sources. The goal of this paper is to review approaches used globally to promote turning FW into useable products and green energy. In this context, the present review article highlights deeply in a transdisciplinary manner the sources, types, impacts, characteristics, pre-treatment strategies, and potential management of FW into value-added products. We find that FW could be upcycled into different valuable products such as eco-friendly green fuels, organic acids, bioplastics, enzymes, fertilizers, char, and single-cell protein, after the suitable pre-treatment method. The results confirmed the technical feasibility of all the reviewed transformation processes of FW. Furthermore, life cycle and techno-economic assessment studies regarding the socio-economic, environmental, and engineering aspects of FW management are discussed. The reviewed articles showed that energy recovery from FW in various forms is economically feasible.

Automated summary

Food waste contains various nutrients that can be reused to produce value-added products or converted into green energy sources, such as biogas, biohydrogen, and biodiesel, as an alternative to nonrenewable fuels. Laboratory studies have shown that biochemical production using food waste is as effective as using pure carbon sources. This review article aims to provide a global perspective on the approaches used to turn food waste into usable products and green energy sources. It discusses the sources, types, impacts, characteristics, pre-treatment strategies, and potential management of food waste for value-added product generation. The reviewed articles also highlight the feasibility of energy recovery from food waste through various transformation processes, as well as the socioeconomic, environmental, and engineering aspects related to food waste management.