Sustainable Biotransformation of Food Waste into Biogas Via Microbial Anaerobic Digestion: A Review.

The continuous rising volume of solid waste and depletion of conventional energy reserves are important global challenges which humanity faces in twenty-first century. Food waste (FW) constitutes major (organic) fraction of solid waste in the developing nations. Therefore, the segregation of food waste and its utilization for the generation of biogas through anaerobic digestion (AD) could provide a viable solution for the global challenges. Therefore, the present review article explores the possibility of sustainable biotransformation of FW into biogas production via AD process. The present article also describes various parameters including operational parameters (pH, temperature), prominent feed stocks, their properties, effective pretreatment impact on the anaerobic digestion of food waste (FW). Additionally, the bioprocess parameters which can improve the possibility of productivity of biogas at pilot scale level has been explored and discussed. Moreover, the most critical and influencing bioprocess parameters which can affect the pilot scale productivity at economical and commercial have been attempted to explored in detail and this is the novelty of this work which impacted adoption of commercial frequency of biogas as potential bioenergy option using FW for sustainable management.

Graphical abstract: Sustainable production advantages of biogas production using food waste feedstock and disadvantages of food waste release in the environment.