Agro-Industrial Biowaste Valorization towards Sustainability and Circular Economy

GERMÁN MAZZA; ROSA RODRÍGUEZ; ANABEL FERNANDEZ BRIZUELA; DANIELA ZALAZAR GARCÌA; ISIDE MUT; RODRIGO TORRES SCIANCALEPORE; MARÍA PAULA FABANI

Advances in Engineering Research

Nova Science Publishers Inc.

Lugar: New York; Año: 2023; p. 1 - 22

Thebiorefinery concept, comparable to a petrochemical refinery, is fast gainingattention. The application of this concept involves different studies and thedevelopment of industry standards. Moreover, the use of agro-industrial wastesfor the production of value-added products and energy vectors has a significantprospective to revolutionize the industry. Consequently, in this chapter,different alternatives were proposed to transform green apple pomace (AP) froma cider industry, grape marc (GM), and stalk (GS) from a winery, quince (QW)from the jam industry, and pumpkin seeds (PS). To reach the premise of “zero-waste”,and eco- friendly process of polyphenol extraction and subsequentlypyrogasification was proposed for the AP, GM, and GS. For the QW, a first pectinextraction step followed by pyro-gasification of solid waste was proposed.Finally, the PS was used to produce salad snacks.This work offers threemethods to reach a high valorization of different agro-industrial wastes,promoting the development of sustainable processes. These strategies could havea positive economic and environmental impact, reaching a cleaner production inline with the concept of a circular economy.