ABSTRACT
Agricultural products are important sources of our diet and are widely used to produce processed food items including fats and oils. These processed products are universal biobased materials directly utilized as food or for animal feed purposes. These materials are also consumed as raw ingredients for a variety of applications like chemicals, lubricant and fuels. It is calculated that around 80% of total global fats and oils consumption is for food purposes and frying of food items. During the heating of fats and oils, compositional degradation occurs because a few heat-sensitive components suffer from chemical reaction due to high temperatures. This type of degradation may be due to the processes of dehydration, oxidation, cracking, polymerization or hydrolysis. Due to the compositional degradation and the nature of generated chemical components in the fat and oils, edible oils and fats turn into inedible commodities. Globally, around 20–30% of edible oils and fats are treated as waste after cooking; therefore, the management and disposal of a huge amount of this biowaste becomes a big issue worldwide, especially for highly populated and dense urban areas. Nowadays, this waste and similar types of waste received from biorefineries have been utilized as raw materials for production of biofuels, soaps, etc. Low-cost and sustainable processes are required to develop high-value products from this type of waste. Therefore, there is an instant requirement for the development of economic processes and applications for the sustainable and permanent utilization of fat and oil waste generated by cottage, small- and large-scale fat and oil processers. On this behalf, the processes of value addition and value-added products are briefly discussed in this chapter. The proper utilization of plant-based biomass and refinery waste (fat and oils) as potential raw material for the development of several useful products and their applications in different fields has recently gained major interest. Oleo-chemicals from waste oil of biorefineries, biodiesel from waste oil, glycerin obtained from biodiesel production, and ethanol and fuels from biomass are major value-added products of waste that have satisfactory applications in different fields. The production of these items including biofuel and lubricants from fat and oils is very important at present. The use of these items can help us to minimize the environmental pollution which is mostly generated by the automotive industry. In this chapter, we also highlight a few useful modes of conversion of fat and oil waste into valuable products through different chemical reactions.
