ABSTRACT
Nowadays, one-third of the global food production for human consumption is wasted along the way of the food supply chain. On the other hand, global energy prices have risen due to the lack of fossil fuel resources. The world today encounters serious energy supply crises, food waste disposal problems, and environmental issues. In the light of such considerations, converting food waste to useful energy is becoming a reasonable and economic topic. In this chapter, the opportunity of applying food waste as a suitable feedstock to producing biofuels is investigated. Initially, different current technologies that can convert the food waste to beneficial end products are briefly reviewed. The conversion of food waste is achieved via biological treatments involving composting, anaerobic digestion, and fermentation; thermal or thermochemical technologies involving incineration, pyrolysis, gasification, plasma treatment, and hydrothermal carbonization; transesterification; and bioelectrochemical treatments. In the last part, the end products classified as solid or liquid or gaseous products are briefly explained, and in the following, some advantages, potential, and limitations of the mentioned technologies are summarized.
