The Growing Biorefinery of Agricultural Wastes: A Short Review

Abstract

Fruits and vegetables from agricultural sectors are the most utilized commodities among horticultural crops. They are consumed raw, partially processed and entirely processed owing to their nutritional values. Living in the growing population and fast-developing world, the demands production from this sector are also increasing which lead to inclining quantity of wastes and residues day by day which strongly affected our health, economy, environment and social community. The losses and waste in fruit and vegetables are the highest among all type of food as estimated by United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and it may reach up to 60%. Realizing this fact, there is demand for each agricultural sectors for proper waste management of these agro-materials residues through waste recycling approach. These residues constitute various valuable by-products such as phenolic compounds, fibers, cellulosic and vitamins which can be further exploited into biogas, bioenergy, biofuel, biocomposite and biomaterials that can be implemented into industries of textiles, food safety and packaging, medical tool, building blocks and many more. Hence, there is in-depth attention of research and studies for agricultural waste biorefinery as well as their recycling methods. This article presents a review on classification of these residues, several refinery products of agro-industrial wastes and their challenges needed to overcome in the future.