Waste to wealth: valorization of food waste for the production of fuels and chemicals

Food waste is becoming a major global concern especially in developing and underdeveloped countries. Vegetable and food waste biomass is continuously generated in huge amounts. Its major impact on the environment is the generation of greenhouse gases. Food wastes are generated at different stages like production, handling, storage, processing, as well as consumption. First-generation technologies used for food waste disposal include landfill, incineration, and composting. But these strategies are not satisfactory for food wastes since they produce toxic methane gas and bad odor and have slow reaction kinetics. This can be addressed to a certain extent by adopting alternative strategies of food waste valorization by converting wastes to value-added products like fuels and chemicals. Food waste valorization will provide a green process with least environmental impact. This chapter discusses the latest trends in food waste valorization for the production of fuels and chemicals.