ABSTRACT
Potential feedstocks to future bioreneries include the food content of municipal waste and the industrial waste of the food processing industry. Potential products include energy and bioproducts (chemicals, materials, value-added ingredients) that add economic incentives to the apparent environmental benets (reduction of fossil fuels and GHG emissions, waste disposal and treatment). Food waste is rich in organic materials (carbohydrates, proteins, oils and fats) and specialties (high-market-value products such as antioxidants). Organic components offer multiple paths to the production of chemicals but do require design studies to improve raw material and energy efciencies. Compared to biomassbased bioreneries (e.g., bioreneries using wood chips and cereal straw), waste-based bioreneries are simpler and require a few stages (e.g., whey and molasses could be used directly as fermentation media).
