{"id":78844,"date":"2022-01-25T09:13:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T08:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/?p=78844"},"modified":"2022-01-25T09:15:01","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T08:15:01","slug":"turning-food-waste-into-future-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sonnenseite.com\/en\/science\/turning-food-waste-into-future-fuels\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning food waste into future fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One third of the world’s food is wasted each year, with around 7.6 million tonnes wasted in Australia alone. Harnessing this food waste is a major challenge that Murdoch research is working to address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If food waste was a country it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, behind the USA and China, according to the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing interventions to arrest waste is a priority in achieving United Nation\u2019s Sustainable Development Goals on climate action and responsible consumption. One promising area of progress is biorefining.\u00a0 Second generation biorefineries can use food waste as feedstock to sustainably produce biobased products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second generation biorefineries can use food waste as feedstock to sustainably produce biobased products.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCurrent estimates indicate that between 1.3 and 1.6 billion tonnes is produced each year, so the recycling and recovery of value from food waste is of global importance,\u201d said Chris B\u00fchlmann, who has recently published research into harnessing it for energy production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This work was done in collaboration with Dr Bede Mickan, Dr Stephan Tait, Professor Parisa Bahri, and Richgro Garden Products. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see tremendous opportunity in anaerobic digestion \u2013 a biological process which breaks down food wastes into biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide \u2013 which can use food waste to generate renewable energy.\u201d<\/p>Chris B\u00fchlmann<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

B\u00fchlmann\u2019s research into developing a food waste biorefinery looked specifically at how to improve the yield of food waste processing by capturing lactic acid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lactic acid is used in the pharmaceutical, food and textile industries, as well as in the production of biodegradable plastics \u2013 potentially using one environmental problem to solve another.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While recent research has shown converting food waste into lactic acid and biogas is economically feasible, the overall impact of generating lactic acid on downstream biogas formation has not been investigated until now.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have explored the technical feasibility for lactic acid recovery following the fermentation of food waste, prior to biogas formation,\u201d explained Professor Bahri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we discovered was that lactic acid recovery from fermentation is both technically feasible and commercially attractive, with the residues that remain after the lactic acid recovery process able to be used to make biogas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9 Murdoch University | Richgro anaerobic digestion facility where the research was undertaken.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The research looked at three scenarios; lactic acid fermentation; biogas production; and sequential lactic acid fermentation and biogas production from fermentation residues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve shown is that an integrated biorefinery process \u2013 one that produces both lactic acid and biogas \u2013 presents an optimal use of energy and materials than producing just one of these products,\u201d said B\u00fchlmann.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is a PhD student at Murdoch University, studying under the supervision of Professor Bahri who is the Head of Engineering and Energy and President of Academic Council at Murdoch and a key researcher at the Centre for Water, Energy and Waste, part of the Harry Butler Institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Bede Mickan is a research fellow at the University of Western Australia, School of Agriculture and Environment. Dr Stephan Tait is a senior research fellow at the University of Southern Queensland, Centre for Agricultural Engineering.\u00a0This research supports\u00a0United Nations Sustainable Development Goals<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

Source<\/h5>\r\n\n\n\n

Murdoch University 2022<\/a><\/p>\n

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