Turning Food Loss and Food Waste into Watts: A Review of Food Waste as an Energy Source
Florentios Economou,
Irene Voukkali,
Iliana Papamichael,
Valentina Phinikettou,
Pantelitsa Loizia,
Vincenzo Naddeo,
Paolo Sospiro,
Marco Ciro Liscio,
Christos Zoumides,
Diana Mihaela Țîrcă,
Antonis A. Zorpas
Affiliations
Florentios Economou
Laboratory of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Sustainability, Sustainable Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Open University of Cyprus, Giannou Kranidioti 89, Latsia, Nicosia 2231, Cyprus
Irene Voukkali
Laboratory of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Sustainability, Sustainable Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Open University of Cyprus, Giannou Kranidioti 89, Latsia, Nicosia 2231, Cyprus
Iliana Papamichael
Laboratory of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Sustainability, Sustainable Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Open University of Cyprus, Giannou Kranidioti 89, Latsia, Nicosia 2231, Cyprus
Valentina Phinikettou
Laboratory of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Sustainability, Sustainable Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Open University of Cyprus, Giannou Kranidioti 89, Latsia, Nicosia 2231, Cyprus
Pantelitsa Loizia
Laboratory of Chemical Engineering and Engineering Sustainability, Sustainable Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, Open University of Cyprus, Giannou Kranidioti 89, Latsia, Nicosia 2231, Cyprus
Vincenzo Naddeo
Sanitary Environmental Engineering Division, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Salerno, via Giovanni Paolo II, 84084 Fisciano, Italy
Paolo Sospiro
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Marco Ciro Liscio
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Informazione, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Christos Zoumides
Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC), The Cyprus Institute, Aglantzia 2121, Cyprus
Diana Mihaela Țîrcă
Head of the Center of Fundamental and Applied Economic Studies, Faculty of Economics Constantin Brancusi University of Targu-Jiu, Tineretului Street, No. 4, 210185 Targu-Jiu, Romania
Antonis A. Zorpas
Science and Technology Driven Policy and Innovation Research Center (STeDI-RC), The Cyprus Institute, Aglantzia 2121, Cyprus
Food loss (FL) and food waste (FW) have become severe global problems, contributing to resource inefficiency and environmental degradation. Approximately 6% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) are derived from FW, which is usually discarded in landfills, emitting methane, a gas that is 28 times more harmful than CO2. Diverting the path of FW towards the energy industry represents a promising avenue to mitigate the environmental impact and save resources while generating energy substitutes. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach was utilized to conduct a systematic literature review on 10 different conversion processes used to convert FL and FW into energy. Anaerobic bioconversion integrated with pyrolysis emerges as a potential eco-friendly and promising solution for FW management, nutrient recovery and energy production in various forms, including biogas, heat, biohydrogen and biochar. Despite its potential, the anaerobic digestion of FW still faces some challenges related to the production of intermediate harmful compounds (VOCs, NH3, H2S), which necessitate precise process control and optimization. Nonetheless, converting FW into energy can provide economic and environmental benefits in the context of the circular economy. This review offers insightful information to stakeholders, academics and policymakers who are interested in utilizing FW as a means of producing sustainable energy by summarizing the important findings of ten different waste-to-energy processing methods and their potential for improved energy recovery efficiency.
