Agro-Food Residues and Bioethanol Potential: A Study for a Specific Area

Abstract

Bioethanol obtained from agro-food wastes could contribute to decrease the dependency on fossil resources, reduce the impact of fossil fuels on the environment, and mitigate the food versus fuel debate. This study is aimed to investigate the availability of residual inexpensive agro-food biomasses that could feed a second-generation bioethanol plant located in a specific area of North Eastern Italy. After the identification of all crops in the area, more than 40 agro-food residues were analyzed for their availability and compositions in terms of water, polysaccharides, and sugars potentially convertible into bioethanol. 574,166 Mg of residual wet lignocellulosic biomass corresponding to 297,325 Mg of dry material were found available for bioethanol conversion. The most promising substrates were wheat straw and vine shoots. Based on the chemical composition of residues, the potential attainable ethanol was determined. Theoretical potential ethanol production was estimated at nearly 72,000 Mg per year. This quantity extensively exceeds the minimum yearly capacity of a sustainable bioethanol plant previously identified as around 50,000 Mg of ethanol. Taken together, these results demonstrate that, in the analyzed area, agro-food residues are available in an amount that could sustain bioethanol production in a specific and restricted district. Techno-economical evaluations are in progress to assess the actual feasibility of installing a second generation bioethanol production plant in the area of interest.

Rice waste streams as a promising source of biofuels: feedstocks, biotechnologies and future perspectives

“…Rice bran (RB), unripe (UR) and discolored rice (DS) are also largely available, with significant ethanol applications [50][51][52][53]. Lignocellulosic rice byproducts (RH-Rice husk, RS-Rice straw) and starchy waste streams (BR-Broken rice, DR-Discolored rice, RB-Rice bran, UR-Unripe rice), Yearly ethanol potential (Tg) from each feedstock has been calculated as previously described [27] considering both the availability and average composition.…”

“…Thus, developing technologies aimed at converting such excess biomass into biofuels could contribute to reduce the dependence from oil-producing countries and, at the same time, to safeguard the environment. Some surveys have been developed and published on the evaluation and characterization of agro-food residues for bioethanol production [23][24][25][26][27][28] and, among a number of different starchy and lignocellulosic residues, rice waste biomass has been indicated as one of the most abundant and promising feedstock [2]. The present review is focused on the latest biotechnological approaches devoted to biofuels production from rice waste streams.…”

A Review of the Sustainable Utilization of Rice Residues for Bioenergy Conversion Using Different Valorization Techniques, Their Challenges, and Techno-Economic Assessment

“…Despite the promising potential of crop residues in augmenting the global energy resources reported in the literature, it is noteworthy that the evaluation of economic viability associated with crop-residue beneficiation technicalities and logistics is crucial for the waste-to-wealth initiative [ 196 , 197 ]. Rice residue is not an exception, owing to being one of the most commonly grown crops in the world.…”

Polyhydroxyalkanoate Production from Fruit and Vegetable Waste Processing

“…The preliminary set of agricultural wastes tested originated from a capillary availability assessment of inexpensive agricultural residues from northern Italy [40]. Briefly, samples of about 10 Kg of fruits and vegetables had been collected in an area of 11,300 Km 2 with its center in the municipality of Soave (Province of Verona, Italy, latitude: 45 • 25 10" N, longitude: 11 • 14 45" E).…”

“…In this work, for the first time ten different fruit and vegetable processing by-products widely available in Italy [40] were investigated as possible feedstocks for C. necator and Hydrogenophaga pseudoflava DSM 1034, another well-studied strain able to accumulate polymers from a wide range of substrates. The wastes, including both fruits and vegetables, were collected, processed, and pre-treated through a thermal extraction process, and their chemical components analyzed.…”