ABSTRACT
In general, small amounts of organic waste can be easily composted, but large amounts require mechanical aeration. In this context, the urban biorefinery concept is particularly attractive to ensure an efficient and integrated conversion of different wastes of urban origin into multiple products. This chapter reports a deep analysis of the performance of MMC-PHA production from waste of urban origin (particularly sewage sludge, the organic fraction of municipal solid waste and food-industry wastewater), with main reference to pilot-scale studies. PHA can be obtained from a large range of renewable feedstock (including food waste, molasses, agro-industrial wastewater and activated sludge), especially when dealing with microbial mixed cultures (MMC), and are completely biodegradable in water and carbon dioxide (under aerobic conditions) or methane (during anaerobic digestion). Overall, the information offered by pilot-scale studies is essential in order to establish, in the near future, a massive production of MMC-PHA from urban waste at industrial level.
