Food waste and biofuel

Apart from COVID-19 pandemic, the world is confronted with many challenges which include inter alia environmental and economic challenges, increasing population and depletion of natural resources. In this paper we will focus a specific focus on food waste, its impact on the environment and its conversion to useful products i.e., biofuels. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), one third of food produced globally for human consumption is lost along the food supply chain. Food waste is becoming an increasingly significant global issue due to its economic, social and environmental implications as waste is being created across the entire food supply chain, from farm to fork. From environmental point of view, food waste relates to climate change since food waste is still being landfilled or incinerated in many countries together with other combustible municipal wastes for possible recovery of energy heat or other forms of energy. The challenge here is the residual ash that is disposed of in landfills, the resultant air pollution from the incineration process as well as the cost associated with waste conversion technique. However, owing to their organics- and nutrients-rich composition food waste is viewed as a useful resource to produce biodiesel, bioethanol and biogas (i.e., biomethane and biohydrogen) using processes such as transesterification, alcoholic fermentation and biomass anaerobic, respectively. Biodiesel obtained from food waste oils and used vegetable cooking can be used as an alternative to petroleum fuels without modifying the engine whilst the biogas is utilized in many countries to generate electricity thereby significantly reducing the dependency of economy on fossil fuels, reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. In some countries gasohol (mixture of gasoline and bioethanol) is used to fuel vehicles.